dennist685 said:
All I want to do is control my desktop from my laptop, and
vice-versa. But I can't find anything in this forum or in
microsoft help on where to begin.
Can someone direct me to step one?
You haven't looked very hard and/or provided any information.
What operating system is on each of your computers/laptops?
Windows XP Home has no built in method of remote control. Remote
assistance - yes - but not remote control.
Windows XP Professional (and the super-sets of Windows XP Professional like
Media Center and Tablet PC) do have built in remote control mechanisms.
Wndows XP Home does have the client for remote control built in. As does
all other versions of Windows XP and Windows 2003 server. (mstsc.exe)
The client can be installed on any other Windows Operating system, allowing
you to remote control a Windows XP Professional (or superset OS) with that
client - not the reverse. You cannot install the "server" portion of the
mechanism on other OSes - including Windows XP Home.
If you want to remote control Windows XP Home or a previous OS - you need to
use a third party applications such as TightVNC or UltraVNC. It comes with
both a client and server component. You install it on a machine and
configure for your situation.
Other things to consider include your network configuration.
Your external configuration - are you connected directly to the
Internet/network you will be using - or are you not connected directly to
the Internet and are behind some router and have device(s) asigning you
internally accessible IPs only (if you do not want to control one machine
from outside your network, this is not an issue.)
Your Firewall configuration - are the proper ports/services allowed through
your firewall (software) on your computer? If you have a NAT box or an
external firewall of some sort - are the proper ports configured there as
well?
http://theillustratednetwork.mvps.org/RemoteDesktop/RemoteDesktopSetupandTroubleshooting.html
http://tightvnc.com/
http://ultravnc.sourceforge.net/