Notebook as remote terminal across LAN to control/access Desktop

  • Thread starter Thread starter JDJ
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J

JDJ

Have never used Remote Desktop and don't know if it can do what I
want, or if I can do it without this feature (where the heck is it
anyway?).

I have two computers with shared access across a router.

Have a bad back so often I prefer to sit in the Living Room with
Notebook across wireless to router for Internet and access
applications installed on the notebook.

I'm wondering if I might use my Notebook as a sort of remote terminal
as if I was really sitting at my desktop, i.e. have access to all the
files & applications installed on the Desktop.

I know I can open .txt and .doc file etc. that are on the Desktop from
my Notebook. I'm not doing anything special there, but of course my
text editor and MS Word etc. are installed on the Notebook.

Is there a way to Login to the Desktop using the Notebook, so
everything appears like I am actually sitting at the Desktop?

If so, will my actual Notebook Desktop & Applications & Data be hidden
while I'm in this mode, or is there a hot key or something to flip
back & forth?
 
More Remote Desktop help if the desktop is running XP Pro or MCE...

http://theillustratednetwork.mvps.org/RemoteDesktop/RemoteDesktopSetupandTroubleshooting.html

I recommend UltraVNC with its encryption plug-in and XP video driver
(installed on the UltraVNC host) if the desktop is running XP Home...

http://ultravnc.sourceforge.net/

--
Al Jarvi (MS-MVP Windows Networking)

Please post *ALL* questions and replies to the news group for the
mutual benefit of all of us...
The MS-MVP Program - http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights...
 
Thanks to everyone.

I got it working.

Both my machines run Windows Media Center Edition. The notebook runs
2004 and the Desktop runs 2005 & I had the impression that 2004 was
based on XP Pro and MCE 2005 was based on XP Home, however both have
the Remote Tab on System (R Click My Computer Properties).

I am the same user name on both machines but have not used passwords.
Windows said the User must have a password so I set up a password on
the Desktop.

When my Desktop came up in a window on my notebook, I notice I could
either just close the window or go to the Start button in the window
and log out.

I discovered that logging out from the remote is the same as logging
out at the desktop which I don't want to do if a program is running on
the Desktop. In the case of one of my programs, the logout forced it
to shutdown on the desktop.

I will study up on this some more.

I am wondering if I have the application itself installed on the
notebook, and can point it to the data on the desktop across the
network without using remote desktop (this is quite easy with some
app's, say a Word Processor) that this may be more efficient than
using the Remote Desktop.

One of my apps is not installed on the notebook and never will be,
besides I don't want to duplicate the data which is significant.

Let's take Outlook 2003 as an example.

Outlook is installed on both my PC's. But of course who would want to
have two DIFFERENT copies of their email, contacts, calendar...

I mean DIFFERENT in the sense that they are redundant but not in sync
if you don't some how sync them periodically...

Since I'm working a lot on my notebook these days, I have copied my
..pst files over to the notebook and am retrieving my mail there.

But if I was back and forth and wanted my current Outlook data to
remain on my Desktop PC, I could use Remote Desktop to control that
copy of Outlook - correct?

Is there any significant security risk by turning remote desktop on?

In my situation with the same username on both PC's my User Name
showed up in the Remote Desktop Logon, and I just had to put in the
password.

Could a hacker easily access my Remote Desktop LogOn (get past my
router) and simply have to figure out my password?

If so what is the quickest way to temporarily disable remote desktop
when I'm not using it.

Well thanks again.
 
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