Remote Desktop Advice, please?

Hi,

Am totally new to trying to Remote Access a Computer, so I'm hoping someone can assist/recommend!

I have a Win7 (64-bit) PC, at home, that is behind a BT Homehub (which I'm assuming is NOT a fixed IP) & behind software firewall.

I'm often working away & either using my own Laptop (WinXP, latest update) or a Client's Laptop (Win7, 64 bit). For each of them I could be using the Client's Network (which has some limited Firewall functions) or a public/hotel access.

If I'm using the Client's Laptop on public/hotel access, then that would be via Client's VPN.

Basically I would like to access my Home PC remotely (particularly Emails).

Which software/system would you recommend?

Would MS's Remote Desktop be adequate or do I need to route everything via an independent Server?

Etc, etc, etc??


(NB:- the critical combination (the others I can live without) is accessing my Home-PC whilst using the Client's Network (either via Client or my own Laptop). Because of the bizarre Client Firewall rules, I can access one of my Email Accounts, but not the main account - both which are hosted independently of each other & also independently of my ISP).

Have you looked at the threads here? http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/windows/t/4155655-r... They might be of use to you.

In reply to a post by scopio:

Have you looked at the threads here? http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/windows/t/4155655-r... They might be of use to you.

Many thanks - I had missed that posting!

I'll look through it & experiment with some of the suggestions made!

As long as you have Windows Pro with remote desktop feature then remote desktop is fine and perfectly secure to expose to the internet as long as your Windows password is reasonably complex. Just need to make sure 3389 is enabled inbound.

I think the problem you will find is most client networks in organizations etc will block 3389 going out so you won't be able to establish a connection. You can try changing the RDP port that it listens on to 443 but you may get mixed results.

Teamviewer or LogMeIn. Never expose RDP to the Internet.

In reply to a post by Zadeks:

Never expose RDP to the Internet.

Old wives tale... RDP has been exposed to the internet without issue for years! Especially with NLA (i.e. vista and onwards) it is even more secure!

NLA isn't enforced. Microsoft still offers an insecure option.

RDP bruteforce and exploits will continue to be an issue for many years to come if RDP is exposed to the Internet. RDP should be behind a VPN at the very least.

Windows Remote Desktop is very good. It's a very efficient protocol because it relies on the remote machine to do the rendering. In effect it treats your screen(s) like another monitor which not only makes it bandwidth efficient(*) it means the display will be adapted to your physical hardware with no need for scaling or pan and scan.

Most other remote software just sends chunks of the screen as bitmaps and although they usually have the sense not to send areas that haven't changed it's still bandwidth costly. Also it means that if your screen doesn't match the size and resolution of the machine you are viewing the image will have to be scaled or you'll have to pan around using scroll bars.

Security is the biggest concern for what you want. RDP is a known protocol so will come under attack and you just have to hope it's secure. LogMeIn and friends avoid that problem to an extent but then you're handing your security over to a third party and trusting them. The big advantage to LogMeIn and co is that there's little to no setting up to do. Just download and install a small application from the web and your're good to go. RDP has some configuration overhead.

The best solution would be to use a VPN and RDP in my opinion - however your employer's network might not allow you to establish a VPN to your home machine.

For what it's worth I use RDP daily at work to control virtual machines, in our office, in Minneapolis and in Warsaw. When working from home I remote into my office machine over the corporate VPN. Our office connection is currently only 4Mb/s down and 1Mb/s up but that's proved more than enough for multiple RDP sessions. Last Friday three of us were working from home using RDP into the office.

(*)It sends 'Draw a line from here to here' rather than sending a bitmap of the affected part of the screen. So drawing a diagonal across the screen takes no more bandwidth than drawing a line across a single button.

Edited by Andrue (Fri 12-Apr-13 14:46:52)

Found teamviewer easy to setup, though have only used it once (as a test) and have thankfully never had to use it for problems with her laptop; however, any advice on how to stop wallet depletion would be welcomed .

In reply to a post by Mikey2:

any advice on how to stop wallet depletion would be welcomed .

Just remember the old adage:- Little Kids = Little Problems, Big Kids = Big Problems!

My 2 are 36 & 27 respectively, unfortunately they still know where my wallet is!