Remote Control Windows XP machine

Any leads on what software would be recommended to remote control my brothers PC to help him fix pc problems..He is not the guru I am and calls for help often. It would be alot easier I am sure to use remote. We both are with the same service provider on cable modems and we both have 2 pc's on our network with a router. I am running Windows xp Pro and he is running Windows xp home. Thanks.

JJ

 

Hi joezep1...

With him having WinXP Home and you have WinXP Pro you can use Remote Assistance (RA) to control his PC from yours. It's free and it comes with WinXP. It is quite easy to setup. The following links below should help...

- http://www.onecomputerguy.com/networking/winxp_remote_assistance.htm - Has step by step pics
- http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=32409&highlight=Remote+Assistance
- http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=30607&highlight=Remote+Assistance

If your Brother upgrades to WinXP Pro you both can use Remote Desktop (RDP)...

- http://www.helpwithwindows.com/WindowsXP/howto-14.html

 

Allowing a remote desktop application to connect directly to the internet makes me very nervous. If anyone hijacks that connection they will have full access to your PC.

At the very least make sure you are running a personal firewall, and make sure it is aware of the remote desktop appliance - see Microsoft's Q301529. This also gives some indications of some of the problems you may encounter if you are using NAT somewhere (on a broadband router?).

Personally I would recommend using a VPN connection and then doing the remote desktop control through the VPN tunnel.