Remote PC control

**Nakedboy** · April 28th, 2004, 11:01 AM

Currently I am using Gotomypc.com for remote control of my home pc. This has worked great, but it does cost me about $20 a month. Does anyone know of any other program I can use to take control of my home pc? PCAnywhere is good, but since I don't have a static IP, I never know what to connect too when I am away from home. If I had a static IP, I could use VNC or something along those lines.

Anyone have any ideas on what I can use?

**cyberhh** · April 28th, 2004, 11:12 AM

1. You could use Dynamic DNS (ZoneEdit) to assign a DNS name to your DHCP address at home. It has a program that automatically updates the DNS record on a schedule an then you can access your machine via hostname.

2. Create a windows script that polls your pc's ip address and emails it to you daily. This would allow you to track your ip address daily.

**3FS** · April 28th, 2004, 01:39 PM

Originally Posted by cyberhh

2. Create a windows script that polls your pc's ip address and emails it to you daily. This would allow you to track your ip address daily.

I used to do something similar with my server at work. I set up server pc to check email frequenlty, then setup a simple little email rule that when I emailed with a certain string of text in the subject (ie- IP Check), it would reply with a preset email. Then, I would simply check the IP address in the headers of the email I had received.

**craigmodius** · April 28th, 2004, 05:38 PM

no-ip.com free and easy, check their downloads.

couple that with PC Anywhere, or VNC or whatever.

This is the No-IP.com Dynamic DNS update client page. We offer these clients for you to download free of charge. The clients are available for Linux/Unix, MacOS, and Windows.

When configured correctly, the client will check your IP address at a given time interval checking to see if your IP has changed. If your IP address has changed it will notify our dns servers and update the IP corresponding to your No-IP/No-IP+ hostname.

NOTE: You must add hostnames on the website first before you can have the updater update them.

**Gollo** · April 28th, 2004, 06:02 PM

vnc will work on any os you are running but if your running xp pro I recommend you use the remote desktop feature. Very fast and it allows you to map printers and drives of the machine you are physically on.

**PolderTech** · April 29th, 2004, 04:06 AM

You can try Radmin. At www.radmin.com you can download a 30 day trail version. Unlike VNC it refreshes the screen better.

Regards.

**gtiseb** · April 29th, 2004, 08:52 AM

use VNC coupled with Dyndns.org's free dns service. remote desktop is not very secure as it uses UPNP to set up remote printers and the such. go to www.dyndns.org and setup and account, then download this client http://www.directupdate.net/ and install it as a service, use your Dyndns user settings. then install UltraVNC as a service too. now anytime you wnat to remotely connect to your pc, you just need to use the DNS name you chose to identify your pc with (ie GTISEB.HOMEIP.NET) the bonus is that you can now also serve webpages and run an email server from your pc too.

This is the best free way to do this using a dynamic IP address.

**Grateful_Dad** · April 29th, 2004, 09:19 AM

Don't know if it's important to you or not, but radmin encrypts all traffic.
On the downside, there has been rumors that radmin can be hacked (I'm sure they all can be , one way or another). I use it over a VPN.
No matter what solution you use, DO NOT USE THE DEFAULT PORTS. most of these programs let you change the port they communicate on. If you leave it set to the default, you are asking for trouble. You didn't mention what OS and wether you have a firewall,router etc...is it dial-up?

**ironwill99** · April 29th, 2004, 01:35 PM

I use DynDNS.org since my router can update it automaticaly and it is free and VNC and Remote Desktop for remote control. I also have my WinXP box setup to allow vpn connections so I can securely access the desktop and shared resources of any PC on my home network.

**Nakedboy** · April 29th, 2004, 02:17 PM

I got an account with zoneedit and setup my router to forward some ports to my computer. I can now connect via VNC. Unfortunatly, it was painfully slow. I have cable access so it sould be a little faster. So I then tried Radmin. It seems a lot faster, but I don't like the fast that you need to install the program on any computer you want to use to access the client.

I think I may be asking for too much from shareware, but I like gotomypc.com because it is fast and you can print from the client to the computer you use to access it. VNC doesn't allow this, and I have not played around with radmin. Can anyone recommend other remote programs I can use to connect to the computer now that I can use zoneedit? Should I just give it up and keep gotomypc.com?

**NooNoo** · April 29th, 2004, 02:23 PM

If its XP then run terminal services that was - now called remote desktop connection.

Painfully slow would suggest you have not downgraded the colour depth and resolution.

**Grateful_Dad** · April 29th, 2004, 02:27 PM

Also change the Maximum updates per second (in the remote control/view tab of properties) to 10 - its 100 by default which is ok for lan, but not internet. Don't know bout the printing though...

**Gollo** · April 29th, 2004, 04:26 PM

Originally Posted by Nakedboy

I got an account with zoneedit and setup my router to forward some ports to my computer. I can now connect via VNC. Unfortunatly, it was painfully slow. I have cable access so it sould be a little faster. So I then tried Radmin. It seems a lot faster, but I don't like the fast that you need to install the program on any computer you want to use to access the client.

I think I may be asking for too much from shareware, but I like gotomypc.com because it is fast and you can print from the client to the computer you use to access it. VNC doesn't allow this, and I have not played around with radmin. Can anyone recommend other remote programs I can use to connect to the computer now that I can use zoneedit? Should I just give it up and keep gotomypc.com?

You might check out tightvnc or ultravnc. Both are great. Ultra has a file transfer capability too

**AWalters** · April 29th, 2004, 07:30 PM

I've had great luck with Remote Desktop in Windows XP. If you've got the OS, it's rock solid and it costs you nothing. Just enable it. You will have to open ports in the firewall to use it if I remember correctly.

**tobevers** · April 30th, 2004, 10:55 AM

I've been using Remotely Anywhere for quite some time (http://remotelyanywhere.com). I use it with dyndns for my dynamic IP. It allows encryption and remote printing and is very easy to use. They charge for the initial client (around $60 US, as I recall) and there is not a monthly fee for the personal edition. If you add additional licenses, you get a reduced fee.
Most Linksys routers have the dyndns feature available. If it's not available on yours, then download new firmware which most likely adds this feature.