Cient-Server-Server-Client setup

I have a many pcs dotted around the house. I need any of them to act as a client at any time to the other pcs. By this i mean no matter which pc i'm at i will connect through gigabit lan on a netgear switch.

I have searched high and low trying to find this answer and many softwares. Up to and including now, i have not found a sollution.

Which pc i'm on at the time i will need to run softwares located and run on another pc that has it. And have full controll of things like restart and shutdown of any pc i choose.

Is there an answer to this, it must be active each time the Netgear lan swich is turned on for all pcs.

Hope someone can suggest how to do this, if possible by not using microsoft pc connecting thing.

Setup.
XP Professional with service pack one

All wired 5e Gigabit lans connected to Netgear switch box

Need any pc to act as a client quickly and easily as clicking a mouse button. So every pc is a
clent if possible. Security not an issue as is connected in house only.

No internet connection required or wanted on the network.

RealVNC and its relatives give control of a PC via a web browser. You would install a RealVNC server app on each machine and then browse to the one you want.

Thank you i will try that one with server-server. I thought there always had to be client/s, i may have overlooked RealVNC because of it.

Any others please do reply.

you make all the machines act as a server, then you make one or more of them act as a client. There's obviously no point making a machine a client of itself.

So i'll need to make them all servers and all clients, for what i need.

Just browsed this page at Wiki

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h##p://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_remote_desktop_software

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its telling us that realvnc has no audio support. I'll need all things to work, also need sound from audio softwares.

Downloading realvnc personal and enterprise edition pdfs now, check before i install it.

Does that wiki list, jog your memory of any other softwares that might be just what i need.

I have searched the RealVNC's pdf's and PCAnywhere pdf's, (just because its refered to, many times). Neither has anything wriiten about audio/sound. Although RealVNC mailing list does say, it is not possible back in 2004.

GoToMyPC is another that i found its pdf's does say audio and tells me from the setup gui there are options including. It can be set for one of three different sound quality. For those that have a high/mid/low lan bandwidth or have network problems.

Do you or anyone, reading this know, if GoToMyPC will do what i require !!

I have never looked at remote sound so can't comment. Doesn't seem to feature high on the list for remote working.

Why not simply install the apps etc. on a particular PC and use Remote Desktop from the others?

OP said "if possible by not using microsoft pc connecting thing"

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microsoft pc connecting thing

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By this I assume you mean Remote Desktop? Any particular reason why you don't want to use this?

FYI it does work rather well, is light on traffic and quite stable. We use it for remote admin of servers etc. and I also use it to access my desktop at work from home via our VPN.

So I see, but I can't understand why or what disadvantage the OP perceives.

I have read about ms remote thing and tried it, it cannot do what i need. At least i cannot get it to set up, as i need it to be.


It would be nice not to login/off each pc. but have them all actively seeking to be the next client. Which pc i'm at then accepts the client role, and the rest gracefully accept to be servers for that session.

All i see with networking softwares, is one pc must be a client, he can roam but must the remain client.

I'm needing any pc on my network to take the client roll, as and when i need it to.

I have thought about what you say in putting all softwares on one pc and make that the client. In reality for what i need, that option is not usefull to me. Each pc has its own goals and projects, i intend to keep them like that. I would just like to control and work with other pcs, and their softwares from whichever pc i'm at.

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I have thought about what you say in putting all softwares on one pc and make that the client.

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Client? I assume you mean server?

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Each pc has its own goals and projects, i intend to keep them like that. I would just like to control and work with other pcs, and their softwares from whichever pc i'm at.

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You didn't make it clear that was your objective; initially it sounded more like you were trying to minimise your licensing requirements (why have five copies of MS Office when you only need one). You could still do that with Remote Desktop.

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it cannot do what i need

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What specifically does it NOT do that you want it to?

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It would be nice not to login/off each pc. but have them all actively seeking to be the next client.

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So security isn't a concern to you?

Remote Desktop allows you to remotely control a PC. It can be a client when you're sitting at it and a "server" when you want to connect to it remotely from another PC. From a "client" PC you can connect to more than one PC concurrently. So as far as I can see it does what you want it to.

Remote Desktop also has support for sound, though I've never tried it.

Thanks to both of you for your input here, i will go ahead and test remote desktop to the max. Hope it does do what i'm needing. Will go to microsoft first and googl a site or two to see i can find a list, of what it can, and cannot do. Never thought a microsoft application could do better than other major softwares. Have always had to use other softwares in place of microsoft ones, as microsoft doesn't like to build in needed features movie maker, wordpad or search are examples.

I have just done a quick googl quickly, remote desktop has sound throughput. Sounding good already, should of given remote desktop more time last time i played with it. Just because i had a fully functioning network, but remote desktop wouldn't connect some pc's. This time i'll sit on microsoft to find out why.

Thanks again.

You seem to misunderstand the terms client and server.

Whichever PC you are sat at will always be the client, the others will be servers. When you are at another PC that will be the client and the others (including the previous client) will be servers.

Yes whichever pc i'm using, will be the client controlling the other (servers) pcs completely.