Remote desktop - Laptop to main PC

Community Forums/General Help/Remote desktop - Laptop to main PC

EOF	(Posted 2010) [#1]

Has anyone had experience linking up a desktop PC with a laptop?

Would I need a cross-over cable?

What I want to do is use my Laptop to completely control the main PC. The screen would need to auto-resize to fit the laptop display etc ..

D4NM4N

(Posted 2010) [#2]

-Use RDP/RDC or VNC (although be careful using VNC from outside your network. If you want to do that then you should tunnel it through SSH. I am not sure if vnc server works on vista/7 though, but the client does).
-If you are using linux you can use X forwarding to forward both a whole desktop or just an application window.
-Also another very easy to setup/use option for Windows is gotomypc.com.

Tri|Ga|De

(Posted 2010) [#3]

TeamViewer is a very good product, and its free for non comercial use.

xlsior

(Posted 2010) [#4]

If both computers are on the same network (e.g. connected to the same home router, even if the PC is wired and laptop wireless) then you shouldn't need any additional cabeling.

If they are not currently connected, then you'd either need a cross-over network cable between the two machines, or add a hub/switch and connect both machines there with a regular network cable.

There's a ton of programs that can allow remote control -- Windows Remote desktop (RDP) is very convenient, but you'd need at least the professional release of windows to allow incoming remote desktop connections. It will virtualize a desktop and scale to the native resolution of the machine making the incoming connection, but the possible downside (depending on your needs) is that as soon as you connect remotely, it will take over the console session and lock out the person that was logged in at the time.

Multiple simultaneous sessions aren't supported unless you run a terminal server in application mode, but that's not practical for a 2-PC network.

(Bit of a catch-22: Either you allow the existing session to continue, but when you do you wouldn't be able to scale to a different resolution on the other PC at the same time)

I've also found LogMeIn.com to be useful - free for personal use, although it would require internet access on both PC's, and I'm fairly sure that it would route the remote desktop stuff over the internet through their servers to communicate between both systems... It's really more intended for connecting computers in different parts of the world than when they're in the same room. Good at what it does, though.
It will allow you to drop in on exiting sessions, so both computers see the same information at the same time and share information.

EOF	(Posted 2010) [#5]

If both computers are on the same network (e.g. connected to the same home router, even if the PC is wired and laptop wireless) then you shouldn't need any additional cabeling

That's pretty much exactly how both are rigged up. The PC has a direct LAN connection and the laptop picks up the WIFI connection

Any ideas how I get the laptop to connect and control the PC?
The PC has Win7 and the laptop has WinXP

xlsior

(Posted 2010) [#6]

With windows remote desktop, you can only do that if the windows 7 PC has at least windows 7 professional -- windows home premium does not have the remote desktop service built-in. (That's one of the reasons that corporations pay extra to get the pro version)

If you DO have professional:

right-click on My Computer, go to properties
go to the 'remote settings' tab
tell it to allow connections from computers running any version of remote desktop
select windows user(s) that have access
you may need to tweak the windows firewall settings to to allow incoming connections to the remote desktop service, not sure if that's automatically configured or not.

then, on the XP station you can initiate the connection:

start -> run -> mstsc
enter the hostname or IP address of the other computer
enter login info
You can also select some extended options, such as screen resolution, whether to map your printers, etc.
-- Done.

If you wish to create a shortcut to make the connection, then use this:
mstsc /admin /v:<computer>
(where <computer> is the name or IP address of the PC you wish to connect to)

EOF	(Posted 2010) [#7]

Thanks xlsior
I only have Win7 Premium here. There is a 'remote settings' tab but it only has "Remote Assistance" option offering "Allow remote assistance connections to this computer"

I tried connecting via Remote Desktop Connection on the laptop, entering the IP address of that shown on the PC desktops IP settings but no connection can be established

I prefer a direct connection method such as a crossover cable. I am toying with LogMeIn but our connection speed is from the age of the dinosaur. Click and wait 2 mins is really not for me

GfK	(Posted 2010) [#8]

Do you need to have both PCs on the same workgroup? XP defaults to "MSHOME", whereas Vista and Windows 7 are both "WORKGROUP".

Also, shut firewall down completely (temporarily) to check its not blocking anything.

That aside, I'd forget doing this with any wifi connection involved as it'll be dog-slow.

An alternative you might not have considered... or might not even be suitable but I'll jabber on regardless - InputDirector. It basically lets you control any number of PCs/monitors with a single mouse/keyboard. Course, if you don't have the PCs side-by-side with a monitor on each, its not much good.

EOF	(Posted 2010) [#9]

Thanks Dave. No luck. I am going to grab a Crossover cable and use this method which seems easy enough:

http://www.home-network-help.com/crossover.html

xlsior

(Posted 2010) [#10]

Do you need to have both PCs on the same workgroup? XP defaults to "MSHOME", whereas Vista and Windows 7 are both "WORKGROUP".

That shouldn't make a difference, as long as you know the IP address of the other computer you will still be able to connect there regardless.