I’ve recently learned about the joys of remote access, that is, controlling other computers from the comfort of your couch or kitchen table. It’s come in handy a few times recently.
The first was setting up the Mac tower to be a little backup and music storage machine. Thanks to remote access, I didn’t need to plug in a monitor and keyboard because I was able to set up VNC on it, and control it with my iBook laptop. This allows me to tuck the tower in an out-of-the-way spot and access it from anywhere in the apartment. It’s hard drive holds all our music, and can be streamed using iTunes to other computers. Nedward had a similar setup at his place.
Then this week Tom instant messages me and he’s telling me about how the evil popups had taken control of his computer. I tried to figure out what was up, based on his messages, but I really just needed to sit down at his computer and try to work through it. Too bad Tom lives in Florida. I knew remote access was the way to go. I tried to set up VNC on his computer, but it wasn’t working out (something to do with firewall settings), so I downloaded the trial of software from Logmein.com and had Tom install that on his computer. In just a few minutes I was able to see Tom’s screen on my own, through Internet Explorer, and was able to control his mouse and keyboard. I was then able to expunge the foul demons from Tom’s computer.
Here’s a screen shot, taken from the iBook, if me using VNC to control my Windows desktop, which is using VNC to control the Mac tower.
First its car radios, now its hard drives… whats next? :-p
Kristen
Are you dissing my mad car stereo installation skills?
You should try Remote Desktop. It is much faster than the last version of VNC that I used. There is a MAC client too.
Kevin, thanks I’ll check it out – the lag of using VNC is a little annoying (although certainly not unbearable)…. but I’m using it mostly in the apartment. I’d imagine it would be more painful to access the machines from the outside world with VNC.
Amazing technos! The only thing that is remotely :) familiar to me is the remote control for the TV.. an I have trouble with that let alone someone elses computer.
So since I am the recipient of your masterminded radio attacks, is my computer next?
How do I know you aren’t remotely controlling me right now, and typing this comment?
Matt, I’m using your computer to type this comment right now.
You shouldn’t use 123456 as your password for everything.
Matt, we totally have he same password! That’s so cool!
I use VNC to access my PC at home from work, but there’s another cool thing you can do with Windows XP that I bet you can do. With Windows XP, I can access files on PC A from PC B by setting up a second logon on PC A and then on PC B, I access \XY$ where X is the PC name you’re trying to access and Y is the drive (if that makes any sense). Because they’re on the same network, no VNC isrequired, it’s like making my utility PC a virtual network.