looking for software/tech to let me acess my PC remotely from 2nd PC

[Cliff789]

I have a PC in my office on which I run engineering software that I'd find immensely useful to also access from my wood shop three floors down . Is there some software / tech that will let me access my upstairs computer VIA my home WIFI that will let me emulate the keyboard and mouse inputs as if I were sitting at my office PC from a remote location such as a laptop in my wood shop?
What do Call this I don't even know what search terms to use looking for it.

 

[Barman58]

Assuming that your wifi is of a sufficient standard you should be able to do what you want using Teamviewer which is actually free for home use. you would need to go into the advanced settings and setup the package to use your LAN connection Which should allow you to work as if you were next to the other machine. This connection is bi-directional so you can also check wood-shop system from the office or the office from the wood-shop.

The software is highly customisable so can appear a little daunting at first but there are full instructions and examples etc on the site

 

[dsperber]

Is there some software / tech that will let me access my upstairs computer VIA my home WIFI that will let me emulate the keyboard and mouse inputs as if I were sitting at my office PC from a remote location such as a laptop in my wood shop?

As was already mentioned, TeamViewer is one well-regarded "free for personal use" solution to this problem. It has the advantage of being usable directly and easily by installing one piece of software on the target "host" machine (e.g. in your office), and corresponding software on your your "client" machine (e.g. in your wood shop). Once the software has configured it would then allow you to have complete access to the "host" machine either sitting at it locally or when remote at the "client" machine. The desktop screen of the "host" machine appears simultaneously in a window on the "client" machine, and the mouse/keyboard of either machine can be used to control the mouse/keyboard on the "host".

It's exactly what you want to provide this "remote desktop" support, and does not involve any additional configuration of your router. However I don't know if your home WiFi performance from a distance of four floors down is going to be fast enough to provide the kind of response you would want. But if your WiFi performance is excellent at that distance, then it should give you what you want. Otherwise, wired connections (to the router, and/or to the Internet if you are trying to provide remote desktop support outside of your home LAN) certainly provide the type of transmission speeds and response time that makes it really feel like you are "driving" the "host" computer as if you were sitting right there.

However since both "host" and "client" are within your own home LAN so that setup and configuration is trivial, I can recommend a second alternative similar host/client software arrangement which in my opinion provides superior GUI and performance, and that is RealVNC. Again, you install a RealVNC "host/server" piece of software on that office machine, and you install a matching RealVNC "client/viewer" on your shop machine. RealVNC provides the same "remote desktop" capability as TeamViewer, but is faster, cleaner, leaner.

Note that typically this type of "remote desktop support" is not within a home LAN (although that certainly also works fine), but rather for true remote access, e.g. when you're traveling on the road with your laptop and want to access your home machine from your hotel. Or, perhaps you provide a remote customer support service and need to access dozens or hundreds of different customer machines across the country or around the world from your own single machine. For example, from my own LA home I provide "support" to 22 machines for friends and family members, scattered throughout the US and even overseas. The RealVNC "Address Book" feature makes it trivially easy to connect from "client" to a large number of "host/server" machines instantly.

I use BOTH RealVNC (as my primary connection, which typically requires minor router "port forwarding" configuration at the target "host" machine) as well as TeamViewer (as my fallback secondary connection, which requires no router configuration at all). Both solutions do the job you're looking to accomplish. Both are fine, with a slightly different technical implementation approach.

 

[wasnotwas]

There's a function built in to Windows 7 (and 10) - Remote Desktop Connection. The pc receiving the connection must be Pro or higher. Works best if the pcs have static IP addresses. I have a bunch of headless (no monitor etc) pcs in my house that form a small 3D render farm, and I manage them using RDC - software updates, check temps etc.

Using Remote Desktop Connection In Windows 7