wacky.banana

The situation is this; I want to use a software tool to offer remote IT support to a friend who lives a round 40 mile trip away from me.

I have identified a 3rd party tool for doing so; however I am trying to work out the steps for linking into his system from mine across the internet.

Given that his ISP connect him to t'internet via a dynamic IP address I know I need to link him into dynamic dns serving so I can create a static ip address to track where he is. I also know I need to do some work on port forwarding to get to him and to go through any firewalls.

What I am trying to determine is what elements need to be done where so I get a true end-2-end picture to enable connectivity.

I guess port forwarding will have to be done from his router and not mine or both?

Can someone please describe a step by step process for making this happen and I can then fill in the lower levels of detail.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Cheers

WB

stevem2k

Hamachi : Stay Connected

Andy Tang

iTrader: (3)

As I'm a cheapskate, I would have them goto:

Port forward the RDP port (3389) to the computer you want to control
Ask them to go to Show My IP or IP Chicken to get the IP address
You open up Remote Desktop Connection in Windows using that IP address and bingo you're in

Not the best way to do it, but I suspect you have the software (RDC Client), no need for dynamic DNS, and they will call if there's an issue, so they can give you the IP address then!

HankScorpio

Sign up to logmein on his machine, service runs and you just log into the account you created from any other machine and there it is.

Works a treat for my inlaws with three pcs on a shared broadband dynamic setup.

Best thing is the price...

Andy Tang

iTrader: (3)

Or some sort of VPN solution. (IIRC you can get a VPN broadband router quite cheaply)

wacky.banana

Bloody hell lads, 3 different solutions in as many minutes. You guys had 4 weetabix today or what?

I was just trying out SteveM's Hamachi suggestion when HankScorpio came along. Naturally I will go for the easiest to setup and use option available.

If I'm truly honest I don't want to dick about with dns & ip forwarding unless I must so easy to use options are a must.

Keep the suggestions coming and I will come back to you presently to let you know what works for me.

In case you were wondering what I was going to use, UltraVNC was recommended as a weapon of choice by someone. However the port forwarding et al malarky was where I came in.

Cheers

WB

Andy Tang

iTrader: (3)

Pretty straight forward to set up port forwarding.

Go into their router and there should be a tab for Port Forwarding.

For VNC (RealVNC is the one I use) forward port 5900 traffic to the IP address of the machine required.

If it's using a braodband router, you might need to set a static IP address on the computer, as the router may allocated a different dynamic address when the computer is rebooted.

That said the othe solutions are much simplier!

stevem2k

honestly the simplest is the hamachi client.

Install the client on your own machine, create your own network name , install on the other boxes and join the network you've created. then you can just remote desktop without buggering about with portforwarding.

I'm writing this on my work desktop with no M$ pptp or Cisco VPN client running....

Steve

wacky.banana

Steve,

Just got Hamachi to work across 2 machines on my network (ok not quite the scenario I will be using it in but fine for now while I learn how to it works).

Seems I can only access shared files on the remote machine and nothing else while what I am looking for is, say, access to the remote's control panel, etc, as if I was sat in front of it.

So what am I doing wrong then?

Cheers

WB

stevem2k

just open remote desktop and point it at the other hamachi i/p address

wacky.banana

no success yet.

HankScorpio

You're looking for easy, I've even made all the reply a clicky, you don't even have to type anything!!

Mogsi

Another vote here for Logmein, incredibly easy to use and setup.....

Neanderthal

iTrader: (6)

Logmein gets my vote as well. Even a n00b like myself can set it up!

PeteBrant

I use RealVNC - Free and works fine once you have it set up.

wacky.banana

Guys,

Been doing a lot of testing over the weekend and since this thread went up.

I am pleased to announce that the tool that gets my vote for simplicity, effectiveness and ease of use & setup, allowing me to get on with the job in hand is..............................................


LogMeIn.

Hamachi was pushing hard in there but LogMeIn worked first time no problems.

My thanks to all of you for your inputs, much appreciated.

WB

HankScorpio

When the trial expires, you need to download the free version but it's painless and basically does it for you.

Good choice and good luck!

wacky.banana

Hank,

Didn't bother with the trial. Just went straight for the free version.

Cheers again.

WB

NickAdams

iTrader: (5)

Another vote for logmein here...
I used the trial and when it expired I was diverted to a web page and asked if I wanted to purchase the full version for $200 per year.I declined and when asked for a reason on the web site I put "Too expensive".A few days later I got an email from one of the guys at logmein offering me the same product at $40 per year lol
As that offer expired I emailed him again last week and he's extended the offer for me so I'm tempted to buy it for the sake of twenty odd quid as it really is that good!

wacky.banana

Nick,

Useful to know.

Cheers

WB