You can control a computervirtually moving its mouse and typing on its
keyboardover the Internet, using either Windows XP's built-in features
or a third-party program. When you are at work, wouldn't it be nice if
you could log on to your home computer to check your email or find a
file you took home? How about using your home or office desktop
computer from your laptop on the road? You can use a remote control
program to use another computer over the Internet, viewing its screen
on your screen and giving commands via your mouse and keyboard. Windows
XP comes with a feature called Remote Desktop, or you can use a
third-party program. Windows Messenger
[Hack #97] also enables people who are chatting to share control of each other's computers. The computer you will control is called the
remote server, and the computer you are actually sitting in front of is the
remote client.
Windows XP comes with a remote client program (Remote Desktop
Connection), and Windows XP Professional comes with a remote server
(Remote Desktop) that works with one client at a timethat is, one
computer can "take over" your computer remotely (with luck, it'll be you
doing the takeover!).
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Remote Access Server (RAS) on Windows NT or 2000 servers and the
Routing and Remote Access utility on Windows Server 2003 both act as
remote servers that allow multiple remote clients to connect. |
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Windows XP Home Edition can't act as a remote server; if you need to
be able to access a Home Edition system remotely, you need to upgrade to
Windows XP Professional or use a third-party program. We recommend
VNC, the small, free, open source program available at
http://www.realvnc.com.
5.7.1. Configuring the Windows XP Remote Server If you want to be able
to control your Windows XP Professional system remotely, set it up as a
remote server. Using an administrator user account, choose Start Control Panel Performance and Maintenance
System (or press the Windows-Break key), click the Remote tab, select
the "Allow users to connect remotely to this computer" checkbox in the
Remote Desktop section of the tab to enable incoming connections, and
click Select Remote Users if you want to control which user accounts
can be used by remote clients. (Windows automatically allows
connections from the current user, along with all user accounts in the
local Administrators and Remote Desktop Users groups.) Normally, remote
clients connect to the server via a local area network or a permanent
Internet connection. However, you can also configure the remote server
to accept incoming phone calls if you have a dial-up modem. Create a
dial-up connection that accepts incoming calls by running the New
Connection Wizard (click "Create a new connection" from the task pane
in the Network Connections window). Choose "Set up an advanced
connection" as the Network Connection Type, choose "Accept incoming
connections," choose your modem, choose whether to accept VPN
connections
[Hack #82],
and choose which user accounts the incoming connection can connect to.
Firewalls usually refuse remote access connections [Hacks #
Section 8.4 and
Section 8.5],
so if you want your remote server to be accessible from the Internet,
you need to open a port in your computer's firewall. Remote Desktop uses
port 3389. If you use Windows XP's built-in Windows Firewall, display
the Network Connections window, right-click the Internet connection,
choose Properties from the shortcut menu, click the Advanced tab, and
click Settings to display the Advanced Settings dialog box. Click the
Remote Desktop checkbox; if the Service Settings dialog box appears,
just click OK.
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If you want to change the Remote Desktop server port to a number other
than 3389 (perhaps to decrease the likelihood of hackers breaking
through it), see the Microsoft Knowledge Base Article Q187623 (at http://support.microsoft.com, type the article number in the "Search the Knowledge Base" box). |
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When you connect from your remote client (described later in this
hack), you need to provide a domain name or IP address. If your
computer connects via a dial-up, DSL, or cable connection, its IP
address changes each time you connect, and the computer doesn't have a
domain name. One solution is to have someone at the remote server
display the Network Connections window, right-click the Internet
connection, choose Status from the shortcut menu, click the Support
tab, and call, IM, or email you with the IP address that appears.
However, this solution is no good if no one is available to do this.
Instead, you can sign up for a dynamic DNS service
[Hack #55] at
http://www.dyndns.org or
http://www.tzo.com.
The dynamic DNS service at DynDNS.org gives you a free domain name in
the form <yourname>.dyndns.org (they offer several dozen domain
names to which you can add your name). TZO.com provides a subdomain at
<yourname>.tzo.com for $25 per year. You install a small utility
on your computer that automatically tells the dynamic DNS whenever your
computer's IP address changes. One final configuration note: when a
client connects to your server via Remote Desktop, the user logs into
one of the Windows XP user accounts. You can't log into accounts that
have no password. Choose which account you plan for remote users to log
into, and give it a password. 5.7.2. Setting Up the Remote Client To
set up the remote client software that comes with Windows XP, connect
to the Internet and then choose Start All Programs Accessories Communications
Remote Desktop Connection. (If it's not there, you need to install it
from your Windows CD.) In the Remote Desktop Connection window, type
the domain name or IP address of the server computer and click Connect.
Log on with the Windows XP user account and password for the remote
server. Your computer screen now shows what's on the screen of the
server computer. A connection bar appears as a button on the screen,
showing the IP address of the remote server, along with Minimize,
Restore, and Maximize buttons you can use to resize the remote client
window. Once you're connected, you can cut and paste information from
the remote client window to other windows. You can also use local files
in your remote session; your local disk drives appear in My Computer
(Windows Explorer). When you print from the remote client, the print
job goes to your default local printer, not to the printer on the
server.