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View Full Version : Windows XP Remote Desktop: Everything You Need to Know


Jason Dunn
08-29-2003, 10:00 PM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2003Aug/fea20030828021469.htm' target='_blank'>http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2...30828021469.htm</a><br /><br /></div><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/remotedesktop.gif" />Almost a year ago, I was at a Mobius conference in Redmond, and I was telling Joel Evans from Geek.com about the joys of Remote Desktop. Joel wanted to know more, and he asked if I'd write an article for his readers on the A to Z of using Remote Desktop. Well, it took me eight months :oops:, but I finally finished the article a few weeks back, and Geek.com has published it. If you've ever wanted to know more about Remote Desktop, and tap into the possibility of accessing your computer from anywhere you go, this is the article for you. Here's part of the introduction:<br /><br />"The idea behind using Remote Desktop is simple: wherever you are, if you have Internet access, you can work as if you were sitting at your home computer. This isn't a new idea, but it was given new life with the release of Windows XP Professional. Previous versions of Windows had the ability to connect to a desktop remotely, but only by going through a Windows NT or Windows 2000 box running Terminal Services. Configuration was complex, the price tag was high, and it only flourished in enterprise environments. Joe Small Business/Home User was out of luck, unless Joe was a very smart guy and had some cash to throw at the licensing fee. I wasn't that Joe, and as a result never used Terminal Services.<br /><br />Windows XP changed all that--the Professional version came with a "Terminal Services Lite" client dubbed Remote Desktop Access that was capable of supporting one remote user at a time. It uses the same protocol as Terminal Services: Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). RDP is a fairly efficient protocol, working relatively well over low-bandwidth scenarios. Microsoft did a very smart thing by renaming it Remote Desktop, and MS engineers came very close to making it easy to use. I say "close" because, like most Microsoft first efforts, the company has a good idea but failed to extend it enough to make it really easy for people to use. With a little effort, however, you can mold Remote Desktop into a solid solution..."

griffin911
08-29-2003, 10:18 PM
Jason!!! I hit the link to the article on GEEK.com and then hit your name and it sent me to jasondunn.com. 6 active sites!?!?!?!? WOW That is amazing! Since I check this site at least 10 times a day ( I get very bored at work!) I find it hard to believe you get everything done. Thank you for all the hard work you put in here!

ryanmjones
08-29-2003, 10:43 PM
Great Article! I have been trying to figure a way to connect to my work computer from home for quite a while now (with quite a few headaches mind you). I do have just one question . . .

How would I "get to my desktop" when my work computer is hiding behind a router? And a software firewall? and a cable modem? And in an air tight welded cast iron . . . well, everything but the last anyway.

PR.
08-29-2003, 10:55 PM
Great Article! I have been trying to figure a way to connect to my work computer from home for quite a while now (with quite a few headaches mind you). I do have just one question . . .

How would I "get to my desktop" when my work computer is hiding behind a router? And a software firewall? and a cable modem? And in an air tight welded cast iron . . . well, everything but the last anyway.

You would need the port 3389 opened on the works router and if you have a router at home you will need to forward the port to the PC you want to connect to.

I do this from work to home daily, its very easy to setup and if you keep the images on screen down to a minimum it is as fast as being on the actual PC. Also minimising the remote desktop app stops the screen updating and conserves on bandwidth

Mike Temporale
08-29-2003, 11:22 PM
Remote Desktop (or Terminal Server) have been a big part of my job for a while now. I use it for all of my servers, home machines, and even to connect to some clients.

Truely one of Microsofts best products. :D

Janak Parekh
08-29-2003, 11:36 PM
Truely one of Microsofts best products. :D
Citrix (www.citrix.com) should get some credit too; they invented the technology, and MS licensed it from them. I deployed WinFrame back in the old days when Microsoft didn't offer it...

--janak

dean_shan
08-29-2003, 11:44 PM
Terminal Services is the best. Remote desktop makes it easy for home users. I am realy glad they did that. For me it's Term Service at work, remote desktop for my home computers (I don't have a domain server).

Ed Hansberry
08-30-2003, 12:02 AM
Citrix (www.citrix.com) should get some credit too; they invented the technology, and MS licensed it from them. I deployed WinFrame back in the old days when Microsoft didn't offer it.
Whew. that was nasty too when dealing with MS hotfixes and service packs. you often had to wait for Citrix to send you a custom SP with the Citrix specific kernel.

BTS
08-30-2003, 12:21 AM
Remote Desktop works as advertised. I wish that XP Home had it built in. I have Professional and would like to be able to support relatives and friends (all whom have XP Home Edition with their new boxes). Rather than talk them through on the phone you can just say "Turn on your computer and watch how I do it." How cool would that be?

Jeff Rutledge
08-30-2003, 12:27 AM
Remote Desktop works as advertised. I wish that XP Home had it built in. I have Professional and would like to be able to support relatives and friends (all whom have XP Home Edition with their new boxes). Rather than talk them through on the phone you can just say "Turn on your computer and watch how I do it." How cool would that be?

MSN Messenger would allow them to "Request Remote Assistance" (or something like that). You can then accept the request and they grant you control. It's the same kind of thing in that you see their desktop and you take control; they see what you're doing.

Mike Temporale
08-30-2003, 12:37 AM
Truely one of Microsofts best products. :D
Citrix (www.citrix.com) should get some credit too; they invented the technology, and MS licensed it from them. I deployed WinFrame back in the old days when Microsoft didn't offer it...

--janak

Fair enough. Although, Citrix isn't/wasn't as nice. I always found it very slow. :(

Which came first? I think MS started with Terminal Server back in the NT 4 days, and then they plugged it into SMS (System Management Server). or was it the other way around??

beq
08-30-2003, 01:24 AM
I must admit, I subscribed a family member's laptop to GoToMyPC service as he often requires visual guidance and handholding. He travels everywhere around the globe and also has offices in Asia. I do not have any control over the network configuration in his offices, much less all his traveling locations.

The GoToMyPC "service" type is the only kind I've found that requires no router/firewall configuration. And their only remote client requirement is a Java-capable browser (any platform). They even have a dedicated PPC mini client applet now. Somehow, his laptop is the one initiating any connection as I go through the GoToMyPC website (not direct end-to-end), and I can tell at a glance whether his laptop's online. I'd love for someone to explain how this works. Does LapLink Everywhere use a similar method?

The bad thing is of course the annual fee ($7.50/mo) :( Any suggestions for a more economical solution? Either another remote control (GoToMyPC, pcAnywhere, etc) solution or a Terminal Services/RDP solution that would work for this laptop...

Janak Parekh
08-30-2003, 01:27 AM
Whew. that was nasty too when dealing with MS hotfixes and service packs. you often had to wait for Citrix to send you a custom SP with the Citrix specific kernel.
That was the easy part. How about the custom scripts to hack applications that didn't like multiple copies of itself running?

Fair enough. Although, Citrix isn't/wasn't as nice. I always found it very slow.
Well, we had slower machines back then. :lol: The protocol is largely the same, although Citrix and MS have added multimedia, high color, etc.

Which came first? I think MS started with Terminal Server back in the NT 4 days, and then they plugged it into SMS (System Management Server). or was it the other way around??
The first versions of Citrix were based on NT 3.5 and 3.51 (WinFrame v1.x). Then, Microsoft struck a deal with Citrix where they could build a Windows-only solution (NT4 Terminal Server), and Citrix created MetaFrame which would add more features (like UNIX client support) on top. Both of them have continued to evolve, although starting with Windows 2000 there isn't any more separate "Terminal Server" CD. Terminal Services is manageable by SMS, but SMS doesn't change the core functionality.

--janak

Ed Hansberry
08-30-2003, 01:39 AM
Fair enough. Although, Citrix isn't/wasn't as nice. I always found it very slow. :(

Which came first? I think MS started with Terminal Server back in the NT 4 days, and then they plugged it into SMS (System Management Server). or was it the other way around??
No, Citrix was always and is still more feature rich than Terminal Services in NT4TSE, 2K and even 2003. It was much faster than NT4TSE. Win2K caught up in speed but sorely lacked in functionality compared to Citrix MetaFrame. Citrix got its start with Microsoft developing ICA with a license from Microsoft for OS/2! Citrix needed the license because they needed the source code to the OS to rewrite the kernel. They hit their stride in 1995 with WinFrame for Windows NT 3.5.

Terminal Services is way more than SMS and probably shares no lines of code or even the same model. SMS is remote control. TS is a full blown user session, which needs different memory management, registry shadowing during app installation and configuration, printer redirection, etc. MS launched Project Hydra in 1996 or 1997 and by 1998, it launched and was called Windows NT 4 Terminal Server Edition, or NT4TSE. From then on, Citrix plugged into TS and used MS's kernel rather than redoing it and redistributing their own NT kernel with the Citrix product. MS and Citrix work very closely, or did. Everyone thought Citrix was dead when Hydra was publically announced. Why buy Citrix when TSE had it built in? See http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=CTXS&amp;d=c&amp;t=my&amp;l=on&amp;z=b&amp;q=l - see that dip in early 1997? Citrix officers and engineers were flying from Florida to hotel rooms in Redmond that had been converted to war rooms to keep the company alive. Within 6 months, they had convinced everyone that they still had value to offer on top of TSE and they were right.

There are still a number of reasons to have Citrix in an enterprise. Overall, it is still a better preformer than bare Terminal Services. Even in Windows Server 2003, there are lots of things that Citrix MetaFrame XP offers, though MS keeps closing the gap and the features become less and less meaningful in smaller and mid-sized companies. They are invaluable though in large enterprises with MetaFrame farms.

DerrickU
08-30-2003, 01:42 AM
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/networking_security/remotedesktopconnectionclient.html

It's actually pretty cool at work when you are surrounded by all these windows machine and you can break out the mac powerbook and connect to all the previously mentioned window machines.

Janak Parekh
08-30-2003, 01:44 AM
Thanks for the details and clarifications Ed. You bring back memories.

Within 6 months, they had convinced everyone that they still had value to offer on top of TSE and they were right.
Not only that, they managed to convince Microsoft to license their tech, instead of MS developing a competing one. Even if MetaFrame sales dry up, they've still got some valuable assets; and MetaFrame is still far ahead in things like load balancing, etc., for the very large enterprises.

--janak

klinux
08-30-2003, 01:45 AM
You beat me to it DerrickU! The RDP solution, which I use daily for work and home when needing access to a PC, is an excellent alternative to running VirtualPC.

Excellent guide, Jason.

dean_shan
08-30-2003, 01:56 AM
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/networking_security/remotedesktopconnectionclient.html

It's actually pretty cool at work when you are surrounded by all these windows machine and you can break out the mac powerbook and connect to all the previously mentioned window machines.

Yeah that programs great for turning a Mac into a real computer. :wink:

j/k no flames I use macs too

Ed Hansberry
08-30-2003, 02:04 AM
j/k no flames I use macs too
Same here.

They make great book ends and the tower cases can even be a stylish support for small shelves. :grinning devil:

QYV
08-30-2003, 02:42 AM
I use Remote Desktop all the time from home to work, and it is a lifesaver. However, I VPN in and thus am on the same network, so I just specify the PC name and that's how RD finds the work computer. What I'd really like to know how to do is log in to my home PC from my Pocket PC, which is trickier since I'm not on the same network at that point and (as far as I know) would need to use an IP address.

Jason's instructions cover that scenario nicely - and I've done it with PPC Terminal Services before as a test. However, I'm assuming that my PC grabs a new IP address every time I log off and log on to my cable modem connection. What I'd like to do is be able to write down some identifier for my PC and have it be valid a month or two later when I have an emergency and need some bit of info from my desktop. Is there a way I could do this without manually finding my IP address every day and writing it down somewhere?

Janak Parekh
08-30-2003, 02:45 AM
QYV, check out http://www.dyndns.org/. You install a client on your Windows PC, and when the IP changes it reports it to their server. You then have a "machine.dyndns.org" which resolves to the correct address. Some firewall/router boxes even have DynDNS clients built in.

--janak

easylife
08-30-2003, 02:46 AM
Guess who's face that is on my desktop wallpaper?
Call me crazy, but is that Captain Picard? :silly:

Prevost
08-30-2003, 02:54 AM
OK, excuse me for breaking into your very technical chatting, but, do my home desktop should remain on and connected to the net, or can it be standby? I suppose this cannot work if the computer is off :roll:

And sorry for the ignorance... :oops:

I figure out that if continuous internet connection is needed, then this is not for me.

Janak Parekh
08-30-2003, 02:56 AM
OK, excuse me for breaking into your very technical chatting, but, do my home desktop should remain on and connected to the net, or can it be standby? I suppose this cannot work if the computer is off :roll:
More or less, correct. There are remote-controllable power strips that you can dial, but they're not cheap.

I figure out that if continuous internet connection is needed, then this is not for me.
Also more or less correct. You could schedule a dial-up connection, but that's rarely practical.

--janak

mhowie
08-30-2003, 03:03 AM
Ignorant question #2 :?:

If one has XP Home, is there a download/add-in/something that will bring it "up to speed" in this regard?

Thanks,

Steven Cedrone
08-30-2003, 03:06 AM
I love Remote Desktop... :way to go:

I recently had "issues" (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=17033) with my Wireless Networker, but I had a problem...

How do I test the connection to my PC upstairs (the PC I use ActiveSync on) and watch the kids at the same time??? Easy, I brought up Remote Desktop on the PC downstairs!!! Then I tweaked, sync'd, and watched, tweaked, sync'd, and watched...

You get the idea!!!

It was an invaluable tool!!! Kudos to Microsoft for including this in XP...

Steve

easylife
08-30-2003, 03:08 AM
Ignorant question #2 :?:

If one has XP Home, is there a download/add-in/something that will bring it "up to speed" in this regard?

Thanks,
I use XP home, and I see no reason why connections can't be made. It is usually branded as "remote assistance" under the My Computer>Properties>Remote tab, and the program to connect can be found in Accessories>Communications... :?

Ed Hansberry
08-30-2003, 03:25 AM
Great point QYV - VPN is the way to go for security reasons. RDP connections aren't as secure and can be compromised by someone in the middle.

As to buying an addon for XP Home to allow Remote Desktop? Well, that is called XP Pro. It is explicitly stated in the EULA for home about remote connections, so if anyone hacked Home to allow RDP, MS would probably sue them out of existence. You can Google for VNC though. it is a totally different way to connect. Not near as efficient and has NO security, so I wouldn't recommend it over the internet unless you have a VPN (can Home support inbound VPN?) or wrap the connection in a secure connection layer. VNC gurus can help there.

Ed Hansberry
08-30-2003, 03:27 AM
I use XP home, and I see no reason why connections can't be made. It is usually branded as "remote assistance" under the My Computer>Properties>Remote tab, and the program to connect can be found in Accessories>Communications... :?Remote Assistance and the client in the Accessories|Communications folder don't work together., by design.

beq
08-30-2003, 03:39 AM
QYV, check out http://www.dyndns.org/.
Yeah I've had a MyDynDNS (i.e. custom domain) subscription with them to test, it was good IIRC. Check out http://noeld.com/services.htm for a list of many dyn DNS providers. I think the more popular ones include: ZoneEdit, eNom registrar (or resellers), and some others. But some like No-IP, DNZ Wiz, TZO, EasyDNS, etc, start to get a bit expensive as I recall...

QYV
08-30-2003, 04:34 AM
See, this is why I love this place! That's exactly the sort of thing I'm looking for, but I had no idea it existed. Thanks Janak and bitequator!

beq
08-30-2003, 05:08 AM
Just a note, if you want DynDNS.org make sure to remember it's ".org", as there are competitors residing on other TLDs (like DynDNS.com).

Anyways, on some PCs that I'd used pcAnywhere with in the past (please no flames :mrgreen:), I use remote updating of that PC's current IP address to a subdomain hosted by ZoneEdit, eNom, etc, then just specify that subdomain hostname as the pcAnywhere target (instead of the IP directly)...

DynDNS.org per Janak even has a nice list of remote updaters:
http://www.dyndns.org/services/custom/clients.html . DirectUpdate seemed popular as I recall, plus DynSite that I use...

Janak Parekh
08-30-2003, 05:16 AM
Anyways, on some PCs that I'd used pcAnywhere with in the past (please no flames :mrgreen:)
What's wrong with pcANYWHERE? ;) It's certainly slower than RDP, but it works on Win2k Pro, NT4, 98, etc., and is much faster than VNC. I still use it frequently.

--janak

dean_shan
08-30-2003, 06:36 AM
j/k no flames I use macs too
Same here.

They make great book ends and the tower cases can even be a stylish support for small shelves. :grinning devil:

Nice. I need to remember that one. One of my teachers is a Mac Addict and I love to give him a hard time about it.

SassKwatch
08-30-2003, 06:42 AM
For working within the confines of one's own LAN, does RD offer any significant advants over NetMeeting?

Jason Dunn
08-30-2003, 07:06 AM
What I'd like to do is be able to write down some identifier for my PC and have it be valid a month or two later when I have an emergency and need some bit of info from my desktop. Is there a way I could do this without manually finding my IP address every day and writing it down somewhere?

What you need is a dynamic DNS solution: http://www.tzo.com/ - that's the one I use, and it works like a charm. I've tried some free ones, but never really found one that was stable...

gohtor
08-30-2003, 10:46 AM
I'm not sure if the ppc2003 has this problem but i know that if you change the ports it the ppc version of terminal service client will not be able to connect

can't seem to get the 192.168.0.1:8888 to understand that i want to connect to port 8888 instead of the default port (i forget what it is) at any rate. the possiblity of a hacker probing the default port is very high and since it is literrally a back door to your system you should probably want to put a totally hard to guess password and not use the default port.

McDeb
08-30-2003, 03:51 PM
I've followed the instructions and installed Jason's suggested dynamic DNS solution. But, my ISP blocks port 80. If I set up a VPN would that help? Any hints would be appreciated.

Thanks.

drosenth
08-30-2003, 04:19 PM
I use my wireless PPC to remotely control my media server (which is just a PC connect to my stereo, with the PC running Musicmatch MX as well as Rhapsody). The problem I have with the PPC version of TS is once connected it doesn't recognize the audio device on my media server. I get around this by using VNC, but hopefully Microsoft will fix this when they include the newer RDP 5.1 version. RDC overall is GREAT at home, especially PC to PC. Great job Microsoft!

kevdawg2003
08-30-2003, 05:25 PM
while we're on the subject, i've got a question. i installed an older version of pcanywhere and when i installed it, it wrote over the the remote desktop files and now i get errors whenever i need to connect to my computer or the computer i was trying to setup. is there an installer for remote desktop that i can use to just fix this problem?

Mike Wagstaff
08-31-2003, 02:03 AM
What's wrong with pcANYWHERE? It's certainly slower than RDP, but it works on Win2k Pro, NT4, 98, etc., and is much faster than VNC. I still use it frequently.
Ugh! I use both TS (Terminal Services) and pcAnywhere at work, and there's no comparison. The latter is far slower and far less reliable - I often need to TS onto a machine to restart the pcAnywhere host service in order to get it to work.

In case you're wondering why both are needed, pcAnywhere is used more or less exclusively for transferring files, since that's not a function offered by the versions of TS that we use. I recently had a chance to play with TS on 2003 Server, however, which is clever enough to automatically create mapped drives on the remote machine that match up with all the available local drives. Very neat indeed. Anyway, I seem to have digressed... :)

Janak Parekh
08-31-2003, 02:09 AM
What's wrong with pcANYWHERE? It's certainly slower than RDP, but it works on Win2k Pro, NT4, 98, etc., and is much faster than VNC. I still use it frequently.
Ugh! I use both TS (Terminal Services) and pcAnywhere at work, and there's no comparison. The latter is far slower and far less reliable - I often need to TS onto a machine to restart the pcAnywhere host service in order to get it to work.
Note that I pointed out that pcANYWHERE is slower, but if the host is a W2k Pro box or older, what can you do? :) As for the host restart business, I rarely have to do that anymore with recent versions.

In case you're wondering why both are needed, pcAnywhere is used more or less exclusively for transferring files, since that's not a function offered by the versions of TS that we use.
You could use SMB shares...

--janak

Ed Hansberry
08-31-2003, 04:36 AM
The Win2K resource kit has a tool that allows client drive mapping over the RDP link. Of course, this is one of the benefits of Citrix - it is built in.

Ashley Dunn
08-31-2003, 05:38 AM
I've followed the instructions and installed Jason's suggested dynamic DNS solution. But, my ISP blocks port 80. If I set up a VPN would that help? Any hints would be appreciated.

Port 80? The default port is 3389 I believe, so you should be connecting to dns.dynamic.com (or whatever) and when the protocol hits your machine, it will knock on port 3389's door. Port 80 is a Web serving port - why are you using it?

Umm...this is Jason typing this while logged into my wife's profile. Oops. :lol:

PPCWanderer
08-31-2003, 03:32 PM
I've been using this functionality for about a year now and I love it. I did, however have one concern: If my machine is using the default port, isn't that a huge security breach just waiting to happen? So I changed my default port number to something else.

I know there is still the ID and password to get through if they do find a machine on the default port, but if the port is not the default, then they have to spend time finding the door before they can even begin to pick the lock, so to speak.

The MS KnowledgeBase links on how to do this are below for anyone who is interested.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;306759
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;304304

beq
09-01-2003, 04:17 AM
BTW, so no one else has tried something like GoToMyPC if they need to remote control in to support a laptop user? :D I was just curious as how it works...

hotweiss
09-02-2003, 12:33 AM
Great guide!

dammitjim
09-03-2003, 09:32 PM
I use TS and VNC from work to home. VNC has a nice feature that allows you to connect via a web browser as well. My question is more regarding the PDA. If my PDA has the ability to get on the internet, I should be able to TS into my home PC, right? That shouldn't be a problem. Now, do I need to be worried about hackers?
By the way, if you have MSN Messenger (XP, W2K, W98 versions) you can allow someone to see and work on your desktop if you allow them to.