Page 1 of Decent (free) remote desktop software..

Mum bought a laptop at the weekend (W7 Premium) and they also have a desktop running Vista Premium.
After trying for about half an hour or so to get Remote Desktop to work (homehub firewall, McAfee firewall settings etc. - and even reading the Help within Windows about running RD!!) I found out (and then remembered...) the it isn`t in either of those OS`s - you need Ultimate/XP Pro for that. >:(

Can anyone recommend some software to let them access the desktop of either PC from the other and that I could also use on XP Pro to RD to them over t`internet. (neverhad much success with M$ RD once routers/homehubs and various suites of security software all came along anyway...
Does it need installing on both machines?
My mum was telling me she was onto BT about 6 months or so ago and they got on her display by asking her to go to a web page and..... well, the rest was a bit fuzzy....  What was that?
Anybody used TeamViewer?

Ste

This item was edited on Monday, 15th March 2010, 20:14

Tight vnc.

Cheers - I take it you`ve used it on the OS`s mentioned - the site says Vista and 7 users should try the beta.

Ste

Yes, I am running it on Windows 7 Premium 64bit to control my Linux media box over the wireless link, and I also have it on my work PC in case I ever need to remote into the servers in an emergency.

I use the free log me in service.



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Non referal link.

tightvnc or ultravnc should do it

How does it connect to a PC that gets its IP via DHCP from a router?  I assume I need their main IP but then what?
EDIT:By port forwarding it seems.  Do you need to change that if you want to go to another PC - or can you specify more than the two default ports (that I assume both need forwarding) 5800 and 5900?
Slightly concerned with this - should I be?
How secure is TightVNC? Although TightVNC encrypts VNC passwords sent over the net, the rest of the traffic is sent as is, unencrypted (for password encryption, VNC uses a DES-encrypted challenge-response scheme, where the password is limited by 8 characters, and the effective DES key length is 56 bits). So using TightVNC over the Internet can be a security risk. To solve this problem, we plan to work on built-in encryption in future versions of TightVNC.

Compared to the TeamViewer I mentioned earlier.....
Encryption TeamViewer includes full encryption, based on RSA private-/public key exchange and AES (256 Bit) session encoding. This technology is based on the same standards as https/SSL and is considered completely safe by today`s standards.

The key exchange also guarantees a full client-to-client data protection. This means that even our routing servers will not be able to read the data stream.

Ste

This item was edited on Monday, 15th March 2010, 22:46

So they want to connect to the machines when they are out and about? If they are doing it all at home then it really isnt an issue and you shouldnt need to mess with any ports.

Is this to help them out when they have a problem? If so you can still use Remote Assistance on non-Ultimate/Business versions.

Failing that, there is a sort of hack available, but it can be prone to disablement with the odd Windows Update and has to be reapplied.

Try here for the Windows 7 remote desktop hack, but there is also one for Vista too which I used to use.


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sash, it`s for both really - in the house but for me to do the `help` thing too.    Never had much success with the remote assistance since everyone seems to now have a million and one different combinations of security software, routers etc.  Plus I used to get bored waiting for the mail to come through.
Had seen the hack thing but didn`t really want to try it..
Ste