Remote Desktoping

The personal webspace of James Dunn

One of the most useful discoveries in IT I've made this year has to be with remote desktop software. Although this technology has been around for a long time, it has only recently become useful to me as we now have a five machine setup at home, as well as several computers around the country that I provide "support" for. My early thoughts about remote desktoping were that it could only be done using Microsoft's built in functionality, and that it was extremely complex to setup and use. However I have been proven wrong in both cases.

TightVNC

Within our home network I've been using TightVNC. This is a free, open source piece of software that is installed on each 'terminal'. It allows anyone to access any other online terminal providing they know the IP address and password of the target machine. The core component of TightVNC sits in the system tray and allows for basic settings to be made such as setting of the computers password. To connect to another machine, the "TightVNC Viewer" application is used. This simple interface asks for the IP of the target machine, and allows you to specify approximately what network speed you are using. Once connected you can access the computer's desktop as if you were sitting in front of it, with complete keyboard and mouse control. Performance on a small home network is excellent, with both cabled and wireless connections being virtually lag free. If you install the optional mirror video driver (also free), there is no detectable delay at all. Connection information can be saved to .vnc shortcut files which then allow instant access to the remote computer.

The end result of this is that I can perform upgrades and fix problems on all the machine in my house without having to physically be there. This is especially useful as several of the desktops do not have keyboards or mice attached to them. TightVNC also allows for file transfers, as well as synchronising of the clipboard between local and remote computer. To summarise:

Pro's

• Free
• Excellent performance
• Copy/paste and file transfer facilities
• Easy to setup and use

Con's

• Initially, you need to know the IP address of the machine you want to connect to
• Occasional connection issues when connecting to Vista machines
• Setup to access from outside the local network is more complex
• Sound from remote machine not migrated

You can download TightVNC here.

LogMeIn

For accessing machines that are outside the local network, I have discovered "LogMeIn". This company offers a free service to remote control machines from any location in the world via a web browser interface.

Like Tight VNC, this requires software to be installed on each client computer, which sits in the system tray. Once setup is complete I then sign in to the LogMeIn website which displays a list of my computers and their online/offline status. I can choose to connect after entering a machine specific password. The interface is presented in a web browser using a Java Applet by default, although you can choose to install a Firefox plugin or ActiveX control which improves performance and load times. In order for the remote desktop to fit into your local browser it is automatically scaled down, although there is an option to view at full screen.

Performance varies, and is dependent on a number of factors, including the connection speeds on both sides, and presumably the traffic levels of the LogMeIn website. You can also adjust the number of screen colours and manually override the detected connection option to see if it makes any difference. This said, although it is not as responsive as TightVNC, these performance issues do not affect usability at all.

I've been using LogMeIn for around two months now and it's already invaluable a number of times. I can offer assistance to remote users in London and Bristol, as well as access my home machine while at work.

Pro's

• Free
• Easy to setup and use
• Remote desktop to a machine from anywhere in the world
• Excellent security (256 bit encryption)

Con's

• Some features such as file transfer are only available in LogMeIn's premium products
• Performance can be slow and image quality can be poor
• Browsing to the LogMeIn site, signing in and logging on to a remote machine can take time

You can find out more about LogMeIn here.

Posted on November 12, 2007 13:59 | Add Comment →