virtual network computing

[Ronin]

Is there anyone out there who would be able to participate in a conversation about virtual computer networking? I'm interested in networking from remote locations, and I would like to learn more about it.

[Ya_know]

What are you talking about, VPN, RAS, dedicated frame relay circuits?

If you can be more specific...

[Ronin]

YOU AGAIN!

What I would like to do is be able to access my friend's computer from my house. Both of us have cable modems, and he sometimes has trouble with his machine. Instead of me talking him through everything, it would just be easier to access his pc from my location. Can you help me?

[EvilCabbage]

G'day dude.

My personal choice, would be to use VNC. Its a nice, simple, free, remote control tool. It lacks some things, like shared clipboards, but for fixing problems, its great. You can download it <a href="http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/download.html" target="_blank">here</a>.

Its real easy to setup on the client end of things, the only thing I dont like about it, is that the refresh rate can be slightly slow, but it isnt unbarable.

[Ya_know]

I have always heard good things about VNC, but because PCAnywhere was paid for everywhere I went, I have become comfortable using it. For what you are looking for, I would go with VNC. You can walk the other guy through installing it, without having to worry about license issues, as you would with PCAW.

[Ahcoraj]

I use vnc daily it works well inside the office, but seems to bog down going thru my VPN. I found another distro called tridiaVNC which is supposed to use NT authentication and have some other enhancments as well. I'm going to try it soon. For the scenario you describe, VNC is the best. I put it on all of my family's computers to allow me to access their machines without the tedium of talking them thru things. Only shortcoming I've found is that they need to at least be able to get to the web. PCaw and Timbuktu and the like have a lot of advantages over VNC, but what do you want for free. And i trust, in the future there will be a vnc based app thats open source and has all the features of the more mature commercial offerings....

[Gollo]

[quote]Originally posted by EvilCabbage:
<strong>G'day dude.

My personal choice, would be to use VNC. Its a nice, simple, free, remote control tool. It lacks some things, like shared clipboards, but for fixing problems, its great. You can download it <a href="http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/download.html" target="_blank">here</a>.

Its real easy to setup on the client end of things, the only thing I dont like about it, is that the refresh rate can be slightly slow, but it isnt unbarable.</strong><hr></blockquote>

VNC is great but can sometimes be slow even with a broadband connection. I use <a href="http://www.tightvnc.com" target="_blank">TightVNC</a>. It speeds up the connection considerably. It's worth a look.

[EvilCabbage]

[quote]Originally posted by Gollo:
<strong>

VNC is great but can sometimes be slow even with a broadband connection. I use <a href="http://www.tightvnc.com" target="_blank">TightVNC</a>. It speeds up the connection considerably. It's worth a look.</strong><hr></blockquote>

Nice link, and one of the reasons I love the VNC base. Open Source You want to tweak it, or add features? go for it! ... aaah.. the joys of OS computing..

[Ahcoraj]

Here's a link to the <a href="http://www.tridiavnc.com" target="_blank">TRIDIA VNC</a> site.......

[Ronin]

Thank you.

[silencio]

If your buddy is running XP you can just enable remote management. It's built in and free

A VPN would really be the long way to get where you want to go. And, whatever you do, make sure his box is in the DMZ or you forward the right ports to his box... unless he's not using a router.