Remote Desktop Connection Help [Solved]

noobert

I need a program that will allow me to connect to a computer on the same network and take control of the keyboard and mouse.

I have Windows Remote Desktop Connection set up, but that logs the system out, meaning I need to physically log back in with a keyboard/mouse connected to the machine if I want to use XBMC (which is controlled from my iPhone).

Ideas?

DrFrylock

VNC is the pretty obvious choice. Lots of different free server/client combinations. I think TightVNC is my favorite one.

noobert

Thanks, did exactly what i needed.

vonPoonBurGer

You used to be able to connect to the console session using RDP by passing it the /console or /admin command line switch. So you might be able to do that, but the feature was removed for security reasons in XP SP3 and Vista SP1. Anyway, if you haven't upgraded to one of those service packs yet, you might be able to use MSTSC instead of VNC. That would be advisable for security reasons if you've got VNC listening on a publicly accessible internet connection and you plan to have this in place permanently, since the free version of VNC has very limited security. For example, in free VNC only the first eight characters of the password do anything, i.e. you can use a 12-character password but the extra four characters are ignored so it doesn't increase security.

I have XP SP3 on my HTPC, so I run VNC for remote connectivity, but the VNC server's listening port isn't directly accessible from the internet. Instead, I run an SSH server on the HTPC as well, and use an SSH tunnel forward to provide a security wrapper on the VNC connection.

Edit: Hmm, apparently some free versions of VNC offer stronger encryption and longer passwords. I know both TightVNC and RealVNC Free don't, though.