Remote access software

[Mr N8]

I am going to be building a pc for a family member who lives across the coutry from me. We talked about it and we want some sort of remote access software, so I can dial in and service the pc if I need to. I think that I could do this with PC Anywhere, but I've never used it, so I'm not sure. Is there a better way to do this? His pc will have Win XP Home, and I will be dialing in from a Windows 98se machine. If need be I can dial in from Redhat 7.1. I have DSL and dial-up. He will have dial-up only. Thanks for the help.

nate

[Orcmonkey]

I've found success with the free VNC found here. It should work over his dialup through IP, although I've only tried it over the LAN.

http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/

[lpc300]

Hi Mr N8,

Although it is not free, I have used PCAnywhere extensively for this purpose, both over a Lan and dial-up. It works superbly and is ideal for just the kind of thing you are trying to do. Remember, though; although your computer-to-computer connection should be faster than an internet connection (my experience with this), it will still (obviously) be slower than 'being there'.

Hope this helps.

[Statica]

The most amazing remote access software i have ever worked with for win9x was the BO servers .. those were just too amazing .. extremely small AND with plugins!!! I kept using them till someone decided we needed antivirus s/w for win9x computers

[glc]

VNC is free, the best way to use it is for you to call them and tell them to get the machine on the Internet, get their IP address, and direct connect.

[Mr N8]

Thanks for the help. I think I'll give the VNC a try. Statica, what is BO servers? Thanks.

[Statica]

Firstly, VNC is the best by far. In my preferences, I wouldnt touch PCAnywhere, its bloated, its insecure, and expensive.

BO (back orifice) Servers was the original big-name trojan .. brought out by a group called CDC (Cult of the Dead Cow); their version BO2K was devastating. But most of all I found it simply A-W-S-O-M-E. This is at a time when only PCAnywhere was really the most supported & stable remote access s/w out there. This "free" program, was hardly 300K, took absolutely negligible processor and was entirely technically impressive. I mean you could configure everything from its filename, registry value, port, even the task list identity...
haha .. my old bookmark list had this .. and it works :)
http://www.cultdeadcow.com/tools/bo.html

<font color="red"><b>the BO server, is a virus and unless properly installed (like any other server), it can be a security hole. Please use at own risk.</b></font>

[morriswindgate]

Back Orifice. It's available for free from the Cult of the Dead Cow website. It was published as a Back Door Trojan, but it is an excellant Remote Access Program complete with great protection.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/bo2k/