Hands on: Taking remote control

It’s easier than you might have thought to control another PC over your network

I bought a new PC recently which, somewhat unexpectedly, came with two video interfaces - one digital and the other analogue.

That meant I could plug in both the flatscreen that came with the system, and the one from the PC I was replacing, giving me a really nice dual-display.

However, I still needed to use the older PC to run my accounts software and didn’t want to shell out for another monitor or a KVM switch, so instead opted for remote control to access the old machine over the Lan.

The end results turned out to be very workable, even though I put the old PC out in my boiler room, which I’ve connected to my main network using Homeplug adapters.

I configured a couple of different remote control utilities to get the kind of flexibility I wanted, starting with Remote Desktop, which comes as standard in Windows XP and Vista.

Remote Desktop
One of the issues with Remote Desktop is that it is only an option on Windows XP Professional, not XP Home.

However, the old PC had XP Pro installed so that wasn’t a problem - all I needed to do was make sure it was turned on.

I did this from the Control Panel by double-clicking the System icon (look under Performance and Maintenance, if you’re in the default Category view) then the tab marked Remote.

There are two options here - Remote Assistance, which lets you invite a third party to help you with a problem via email, and Remote Desktop, activated by clicking the tick box marked ‘Allow users to connect remotely to this computer’.

If you haven’t already assigned passwords to local user accounts you’ll be told to do so to prevent unauthorised remote access.

You can also restrict that access by clicking the button marked Select Remote Users, although on a small network such as mine security isn’t usually a big concern, and I didn’t bother with this option.

Client setup is straightforward, with the software needed (Remote Desktop Connection) usually already installed on most Windows XP (Pro and Home) and Vista PCs. On the Vista PC I was using, for example, I found it by going to the All Programs/Accessories menu.

If it’s not there you can add it via the Control Panel, and if you’re running an earlier implementation of Windows, a suitable client can be downloaded from www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/tools/rdclientdl.mspx.

Whichever version you use, the Remote Desktop Connection client asks for the name or IP address of the PC to connect to, then opens a window to provide access to the desktop that would, otherwise, be displayed on the remote system’s own display.

Some fine-tuning is also possible. For example, by clicking the Options button you can resize the remote desktop and say how many colours to use.

Plus, with the latest implementation you can map local resources, such as the clipboard and printers as well as CD/DVD and hard disks, to the remote system.

On a network such as mine you’ll get performance levels on a par with using the PC with its own display, making for a very usable solution.

However, what you’re actually employing is a cut-down version of the multi-user Windows terminal server application which, in its more normal guise, enables multiple desktops to be hosted on a single Windows server, which can sometimes cause problems.

Most applications are fine, but I have come across a few that don’t work as expected, with cut and paste operations often not working.

Another small irritation is the lack of a ‘Turn off computer’ button when in a Remote Desktop session, quite sensibly to prevent remote users shutting down a terminal server while others are attached.

You can still get to the shutdown and restart controls via the Task Manager, but I also encountered problems with user profiles when using Remote Desktop, so I took the precaution of installing VNC remote control for when the Microsoft software wasn’t enough.

Originally developed by AT&T Laboratories, one of the advantages of VNC (Virtual Network Computer) is that it can be used to remotely manage not just Windows PCs, but Linux and other platforms, too.

There are several different implementations, the most popular being Real VNC (www.realvnc.com), with both free and more functional chargeable commercial versions available.

I used the free version which, just like Remote Desktop, is made up of two parts - a server and a viewer.

However, unlike Remote Desktop, you don’t get a new session when you log on. Rather, the local session is simply mirrored over the network to the client viewer, with everything that would normally be possible locally available remotely.

The free version is limited in that it lacks a lot of the security available in the chargeable implementations, but on a local network that’s not an issue.

Neither can it be used to control a Vista PC although, again, that wasn’t a problem on my setup, where the target PC was running XP Pro.

Installation starts with the server component, which is installed like any other application and either started manually or, as in my case, run automatically as a background task - referred to as Service Mode.

Note, however, that unlike Remote Desktop, which sets up a Windows firewall exception rule itself, with VNC you’ll need to tell the firewall on the PC running the VNC server to allow traffic through on TCP port 5900 before connections can be made, and do likewise with any third-party security software or intervening hardware firewalls.

If you’re running any kind of anti-spyware software, you’re likely to be warned of a possible threat from a remote control program such as VNC, as with Windows Defender, for example, which always views VNC with suspicion.

You then install the VNC client on the PCs you want to be able to connect to the server. Again, this is an easy task, as too is initiating a connection using either the name or IP address of the target PC plus, where you’ve opted for password-protection, the password required to be allowed to connect.

With Remote Desktop it’s not possible to use the PC locally and remotely at the same time. With VNC, however, the local and remote users in effect share the same desktop, unless this is specifically blocked. Indeed, you can have several clients attached to the same server.

You can also choose whether or not to prompt the local user before allowing access and, although it’s not possible to map local resources to the remote PC, file transfer and chat facilities are available on most implementations.

Really remote
I’ve never found VNC to be as snappy as Remote Desktop, but performance is acceptable, especially in this instance where I was connecting to my second PC over a local area network with the two systems just a few metres apart.

Of course, I could equally use the same software to connect over the internet, although to do that I would need to configure my firewall to allow incoming connections on the ports involved or set up a VPN (Virtual Private Network) tunnel to provide the necessary security.

Dynamic addressing schemes can also cause problems in such circumstances, so, for remote access over the internet I prefer to use one of the hosted services now available.

The two that spring to mind are Go To My PC from Citrix (www.gotomypc.com) and Log Me In (www.logmein.com). They’re much the same, although I prefer the latter, mainly because you can use the basic service for free.

To connect to a remote PC all you have to do is open a browser and log on to the Log Me In server using the username and password assigned to your account.

You’ll then see a list of your registered PCs running the Log Me In agent from which you can select the one you want to connect to.

Any browser can be used, but an ActiveX or Java plug-in is required and these may be blocked. However, with Log Me In Ignition you can run a Windows client instead from a USB memory stick, if you want, with no browser or browser plug-ins required.

Moreover, if you run the software from a USB stick, when it’s removed there’s nothing left behind on the host PC to, potentially, compromise security.

One other drawback is the need to leave the target PC switched on for Log Me In to work, but in practice that’s not a major issue and whenever I’ve used it I’ve been impressed with the performance.

Obviously, the more bandwidth between you and the remote PC the better, but it has worked well on just about every internet connection I’ve tried, enabling me to check/send emails, retrieve important files, etc, remotely.

This article appeared in the February issue of Personal Computer World.