control one pc with another (1 Viewer)

[frambosenshmak]

i've got a dell laptop running vista and and an older dell desktop running xp. is there a way i can control the xp machine from the laptop (ie access files on harddrive or switch between the two desktops) without having a monitor for the desktop machine?

i found a piece on realvnc which sounds along the lines of what i want.

anyone any experience in doing this?
thanks

 

[magicbastarder]

allow remote desktop?
don't know if it's available on all breeds of XP and vista though.
on XP, right click my computer>properties, and go to the 'remote' tab (if there is one). do you see an option to allow users to connect remotely to it?

 

[Froog]

yes, just search "remote access" on google, loads of software about.

 

[frambosenshmak]

thanks yeah i was looking at remote desktop but i have vista business on one and xp home on the other. checked microsoft help and remote desktop wont connect to xp home unfortunately.

i was wondering if anyone had used particular software and could recommend it. Real VNC and ultra VNC are both free and were first in the list that caught my eye

http://www.wikihow.com/Use-RealVNC

however i dont want to get saddled with software thats going to screw up my internet or admin connections. Vista already has a gem whereby if i connect to my phone via bluetooth for a file transfer, nearly everytime it disables my wifi connection! i need to restart to get it sorted again. what a crock.

 

[theoootini]

we use real VNC here in work. its fine.

 

[magicbastarder]

my brother recommends logmein - he uses it to manage several PCs.
he has a hunch that it's better at dealing with dynamic addresses than VNC.

 

[aoboa]

VNC is decent.

 

[ernesto]

my brother recommends logmein - he uses it to manage several PCs.
he has a hunch that it's better at dealing with dynamic addresses than VNC.

its ok for controlling stuff but hard to grab files though with that.

 

[frambosenshmak]

its ok for controlling stuff but hard to grab files though with that.

am looking to control a computer over local network so thats as remote as it gets. just want to be able to log into it every so often to access files on the drives and set work up to render or use programs running on it.

real vnc only does vista for the paid version, its only 40quid but i'll see what the free versions can do for me first before considering forking out (even if 40quids not bad for not having to fork out for a second monitor and extra keyboard and mouse cluttering up the physical desktop

 

[ernesto]

am looking to control a computer over local network so thats as remote as it gets. just want to be able to log into it every so often to access files on the drives and set work up to render or use programs running on it.

real vnc only does vista for the paid version, its only 40quid but i'll see what the free versions can do for me first before considering forking out (even if 40quids not bad for not having to fork out for a second monitor and extra keyboard and mouse cluttering up the physical desktop

in that case use www.logmein.com. its a piece of piss and free

 

[pete]

logmein is more for site to site stuff rather than LAN stuff.

use TightVNC

 

[frambosenshmak]

thanks for all the help.
i'll read through all the documentation for the different programs buy tightvnc and real vnc seem closest to what i'm looking for.

 

[Ferox13]

I use
Radmin..

i have an old PC that I leave on constantly for torrents. I log onto via the lan when at home or remotely. I had set up a fixed IP for it for that ( I sue no-ip srvice for that - its free)..

 

[Wicker]

logmein, because you can access your machine from any other computer that has a web browser....

ie the software only needs to be installed on the machine being controlled