Remote Connection Guide

Setting It Up

Getting straight to it, here you will find how to set up a remote connection server on the OS of your choice. You will soon find setting up your system is pretty easy, however your network environment will also need to be configured to complete the process. In this section I will only be setting up your system to receive an incoming connection request. I will cover how to set up your network and connect remotely in a later section.

Windows

As mentioned earlier, I will show you how to set up both VNC and TS. If you have Windows XP Professional, I would recommend you use TS, however you can certainly use VNC, or both. For all other flavors of Windows, VNC will work for you.

Terminal Services

Terminal Services is, without a doubt, my remote connection method of choice. It offers many features not standard with VNC (I will cover these options in more detail later). Another great thing about Terminal Services is it is built into Windows XP Professional and is easy to get running (you will need to be an Administrator to do this):

Terminal Services Setup
Screenshot	Description
	Open Control Panel > System > Remote Check the option for “Allow users to connect remotely to this computer” Click Apply
	If you do not have a password on your account you will get the following message. If you see this you need to set up a password for your Windows account before you will be able to log in through TS.
	Clicking the Select Remote Users button allows you to add any non-Administrator accounts permissions to log into TS. You will see a message at the bottom indicating your account already has access. This information is purely optional, so you can leave it empty.

Virtual Network Computing

If you do not have Windows XP Professional, then VNC is going to be the method for you. While there are several programs available which accomplish the same result, the program I am going to use in this article is the open source application TightVNC. After you have downloaded the software, just launch the installer:

Windows TightVNC Installation
Screenshot	Description
	Select the install type for Full Installation.
	To be thorough, select all options available.
	Unless you know what you doing, you should leave all the system properties to their default settings.

Linux

The vast majority of Linux desktop’s are run by the big two window managers, GNOME or KDE. While alternate Linux GUI’s can certainly be configured for VNC connection, I am only going to be covering the configuration for these two. The great thing is both GNOME and KDE already have a VNC server built into them, so all you have to do is enable and configure the option:

GNOME VNC Setup
GNOME
Screenshot	Description
	Open System > Preferences > Remote Desktop Select the options for: Allow other users to view your desktop Allow other users to control your desktop Require the user to enter this password (do not use your system password here)

KDE VNC Setup
KDE
Screenshot	Description
	Open KDE Menu > Internet > Krfb
	Click the Configure button and select the options for: Allow uninvited connections Allow uninvited connections to control the desktop (do not use your system password here) Announce service on the network is optional

Mac OSX

Much like Windows, there are several applications available which will allow you to run the VNC service. In this article I am using an open source product of Redstone Software called OSXvnc. Once you have downloaded the DMG file, mounted it and installed the program to your Applications directory, here is how to configure it:

MAC OSX VNC Setup
Screenshot	Description
	In the General tab, leave everything at its default value, but be sure to assign a password different from your system password.
	In the Startup tab you need to make sure you have the program configured to start as a service when the OS starts. This way the VNC server will run in the background to allow connections. Click the Configure Start Item and after entering your system password, you will be able to set this option.

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Comments

Harjit Banwatt says:

August 7, 2007 at 4:16 am

Great artical only one thing wrong can’t see any of the images.

trent says:

August 7, 2007 at 8:41 am

Great job. Keep up the good work.
It this also included in your book on “build your own network”?
Thanx

William says:

November 19, 2007 at 5:27 pm

Another remote access tool to take a look at is I’m InTouch – http://www.imintouch.net – that costs about half the price of GoToMyPC. It also has a neat feature of letting you access your outlook email and transfer files from almost any mobile phone.

Mayank jolly says:

March 8, 2009 at 1:53 am

how to make a remote desktop connection in linux?