Care to recommend a remote access method beside Remote Desktop?

[Atom]

I have a home network of 4 Win 7 computers which I leave running when I'm away from home to provide data to my website, among other things. In the past, I've been using Remote Desktop to access my home computers. It works very well, but it's always a challenge getting everything set up to work right before I go. I was wondering if others who have used Remote Desktop as well as other means of remote access would care to share their experience and express a preference, if any.

Thanks.

 

[chev65]

Everyone seems to like > TeamViewer - Free Remote Control, Remote Access & Online Meetings

 

[cyberSAR]

I've used splashtop, and am trying Remote Utilities now but I prefer Remote Desktop.

I setup CopSSH server on one machine and tunnel to the others. Best performance and most dependable of all I have tried so far.

 

[Shadowjk]

I have a home network of 4 Win 7 computers which I leave running when I'm away from home to provide data to my website, among other things. In the past, I've been using Remote Desktop to access my home computers. It works very well, but it's always a challenge getting everything set up to work right before I go. I was wondering if others who have used Remote Desktop as well as other means of remote access would care to share their experience and express a preference, if any.

Thanks.

If you forward your ports correctly RDP shouldn't be an issue. Do you use a static IP address or is it dynamically assigned? You may want to consider using Dynamic DNS so you can RDP to a URL instead of having to find the IP address.

Team-viewer is a good alternative but requires someone to be at both ends.

How is your setup currently running?

Josh

 

[Digital Life]

the easiest method I found was to install team viewer on both computers. I have to admit that I have not tried any other way over the internet but within my network I mostly use VNC Viewer for my 3 computers

 

[phantomofrussia]

I recommend Teamviewer, it is free as long as it is for personal use.

You can install unattended connection which then allows you to connect to the computers as long as those computers have an internet connection.

 

[Atom]

Ok, I'm going to give TV a try. I'll let you know how it works.

 

[dsperber]

I use RealVNC for almost all of the 21 remote machines I support. I use RealVNC Address book on my laptop (i.e. "client") to connect to each of the remote "host server" machines. RealVNC Address Book is just a simple way to get to RealVNC Viewer without having to enter each host's password everytime you want to connect. There's simply a master password to get into the Address book, where each of the subordinate target host machines connection details are stored once and then remembered.

RealVNC does require that you configure the router at the target host server machine to allow "port forwarding" from outside, to get through the router firewall. And port forwarding requires that the target machine IP address be "static" within the LAN, meaning your router must support "address reservation by MAC address" so that the IP address can be specified in the port forwarding rules.

Furthermore, if the target host IP address can vary over time (e.g. if it's at least possible for your ISP to assign a different address to your cable/dsl modem when the DHCP lease renews... although in reality that does occur only very very rarely) then you now must deal with the "dynamic IP target address" (as viewed from the outside Internet world, for connection from the remote client machine to the host server machine). I use DynDNS Pro to solve that problem (very nominal cost per year to support symbolic hostname->IP registration for up to 32 host machines).


For two particular host machines I support where the router simply doesn't provide IP address reservation and port forwarding correctly, I use TeamViewer. It's free for non-commercial use, but if you go with the free version then you're also bothered by advertisements for the commercial retail non-free version (which is VERY expensive).

Anyway, TeamViewer's approach eliminates ALL of the configuration requirements I described above for RealVNC. You simply install TeamViewer on both client machines and host machines, and there is secure connectivity performed through an intermediate TeamViewer server (at least initially, to establish the connection). So there's no router configuration needed, nor is there any dynamic IP (via ISP-provided DHCP) consideration.


Personally, I prefer RealVNC even though there is router setup required as well as something like DynDNS required if you don't have a static IP provided by your ISP.

 

[cyberSAR]

I also just ran across AnyDesk AnyDesk - The World's Fastest Remote Desktop Application from some ex-employees of Team Viewer. Will be testing it today.

 

[Atom]

I took Teamviewer for a test drive and it seems to work very well and I especially like not having to worry about the port forwarding/router setup. I'm going to use it next time I'm away from my home office.

 

[phantomofrussia]

I also just ran across AnyDesk AnyDesk - The World's Fastest Remote Desktop Application from some ex-employees of Team Viewer. Will be testing it today.

Went to their website. They seem pretty cool and I like how it is not to expensive if you want to purchase it.

 

[Atom]

Just doing some final checks of Teamviewer before leaving and discovered the graphics quality was not anything like what I remembered with Remote Desktop. I did a double check using RDT and it most definitely produces a clearer and truer image of the original desktop.

 

[dsperber]

Just doing some final checks of Teamviewer before leaving and discovered the graphics quality was not anything like what I remembered with Remote Desktop. I did a double check using RDT and it most definitely produces a clearer and truer image of the original desktop.

By default, TV tries to improve performance by sending as little desktop data across from host to client. This includes setting backgrounds to black, reverting to lower resolution and turning off Aero, etc.

But if your connection speed from client to host is no problem you can change all of that through settings, to produce a much improved appearance on the client.

Extras -> Options -> Remote control -> quality, set to "optimize quality" instead of default "automatic quality selection"

Extras -> Options -> Meeting -> quality, again set to "optimize quality" instead of default "automatic quality selection"

You can also uncheck "remove remote wallpaper" and/or "remove own wallpaper" if you want, but I leave them checked as it greatly improves response time with a solid black background instead of a graphic.


Try those. Did it give you what you want in terms of host desktop appearance on the client?

 

[Atom]

Just doing some final checks of Teamviewer before leaving and discovered the graphics quality was not anything like what I remembered with Remote Desktop. I did a double check using RDT and it most definitely produces a clearer and truer image of the original desktop.

By default, TV tries to improve performance by sending as little desktop data across from host to client. This includes setting backgrounds to black, reverting to lower resolution and turning off Aero, etc.

But if your connection speed from client to host is no problem you can change all of that through settings, to produce a much improved appearance on the client.

Extras -> Options -> Remote control -> quality, set to "optimize quality" instead of default "automatic quality selection"

Extras -> Options -> Meeting -> quality, again set to "optimize quality" instead of default "automatic quality selection"

You can also uncheck "remove remote wallpaper" and/or "remove own wallpaper" if you want, but I leave them checked as it greatly improves response time with a solid black background instead of a graphic.


Try those. Did it give you what you want in terms of host desktop appearance on the client?

That's good to know. Thank you.

I did change the setting to optimize quality and I saw no difference in the image quality. I would also observe that RDP just looks and feels more like the remote desktop and response is quicker.