Connecting to another PC using Remote Desktop

Many people use PCs at work and at home. If you’re one of these people, there might come a time when you need to access your home PC from work or vice-versa. Or if you’re a tech-savvy person who works in a small office with no dedicated IT support personnel, you might find yourself supporting your co-workers when they encounter problems with their PCs (IT support personnel use the software discussed in this article for that exact purpose). Or if you happen to read this article by accident, you can impress co-workers by putting into practice the tip written here. Whatever the case, Windows’ Remote Desktop Connection software allows you to connect to another PC and to work on that PC from your own computer, over the Internet. This article will only tackle the Remote Desktop in Windows XP, as I don’t have Windows Vista running on my PC yet.

Remote Desktop is installed with Windows XP. If by some reason it is not available on your computer, you can install it using your Windows XP installation CD. If you’re using a version of Windows older than Windows XP, you can download the Remote Desktop from here and install it on your PC. Once you’ve done that, you’ll be able to connect to a Windows XP computer over the Internet using the Remote Desktop client installed on your pre-Windows XP PC.

Before proceeding, you should take note of the following:

• Both the PC you’re using to connect to the remote PC (the one running the programs/containing the files you want to access) and the host PC (the one you’re using to connect to the host PC) should be on the same virtual private network connected to the Internet. If you’re not on the same VPN, you should at least know the IP address of the host PC to be able to connect to it.
• The remote PC should be turned on already, as you can’t turn it on using Remote Desktop.
• The remote PC should be set up to accept Remote Desktop connections. We will show you how to do this below.
• You should have the necessary access rights to the remote PC, as you’ll be asked to enter your username and password to that PC before you can connect to it successfully.

To allow the remote PC to accept Remote Desktop connections, follow the instructions below:

1. Click Start, then My Computer.
2. Under System Tasks, select View system information. This will bring up the System Properties window.
3. Click the Remote tab.
4. Check the Allow users to connect remotely to this computer box.
5. Click Apply, then Ok.

The next step is to include Remote Desktop in the list of applications that Windows Firewall should allow to access the Internet. To do this, follow the steps below.

1. Click Start, then Control Panel.
2. Click Security Center. This will open the Windows Security Center window.
3. Click Windows Firewall. This will open the Windows Firewall window.
4. Click the Exceptions tab.
5. Check the Remote Desktop box.
6. Click Ok.

With that out of the way, you can already use the Remote Desktop program on the host PC to connect to the remote PC. To do this, follow the steps below.

1. Click Start->Programs->Accessories->Communications->Remote Desktop to open the program.
2. On the Computer field, enter the name of the remote PC. If you’re not on the same network, enter the IP address instead.
3. Click Ok.

You can view Advanced options for the program by clicking the Options button. You may want to explore this if you encounter problems connecting to the remote PC.

Free alternatives to Remote Desktop include RealVNC and LogMeInFree. We Recommend trying GoToMyPC or PCnow (free trials) remote dekstop software

Posted in Categories: Internet, Software, Windows or Vista ~ No Tags ~ Trackback

Related Posts: No related posts