Using Remote Desktop Tutorial?

[nz0eBoy]

The recent post on Tech Support for Life, got me to thinking about how I can better manage my parent's PC without having to be there (not that I don't like them, it is just they are two hours away). They have Windows XP Pro and so do I, so I thought maybe Remote Desktop was the way to go. I have read the stuff on microsoft.com and googled some other stuff, but nothing quite covers what I need to be able to do.

Unfortunately, the town where my parents live does not have broadband so they only connect to the internet via modem. Can someone tell me if I can use enable Remote Desktop on their machine and be able to connect with their machine, whenever they are connected via a modem?

Any suggestions about where to look would be much appreciated.

[galt]

I'm sure there are better options out there, but I'd like to recomend a free & easy solution - LogMeIn.

https://secure.logmein.com/go.asp?page=home

I've used this program to work on my gf's laptop from my PC or my PPC. It added significant time to the host machine's start up time, but it's probably in need of some RAM.

Galt

[PDANEWBIE]

Once they have an internet IP you should be able to connect to them. The main thing you will need to get from them each time they connect is their IP information because by nature dial-up users have dynamic IP's. Also one onther thing I would probably do a registry hack on their PC and change the port you remote control them too and when connecting type it in like this XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX:YYYY where X is the IP and Y is the port you assigned in their registry. The only other thing is to ensure that if you have loaded firewall software you will have to have whatever port you specify open.

Also remember when your remote desktoping in thaty if they are over a modem you will want to lower the display settings that gets sent back so your not wasting the line speed on useless colors.

Sure there are other downloadable things you can use but why not use something thats already part of the OS?