Remote access into my home pc....??

[Dennis Peacock]

I want to be able to access my home pc from wherever I am. I do this for "work" but they have all the various software and servers to allow or deny access.

I have a new Belkin router that allows me to put my printer on the network as well as my mass storage device for backups.

I am on DSL and it's the DSL Modem -> Belkin Router -> my home pc and/or the kids pc.

I've read the manual that came with the router, but I found nothing about VPN or such as this. My router is a Belkin Share Max.

Those of you who do this already.....what am I missing?

[David Weaver]

I'm sure there are pay services online that allow you to do it. I don't know if netmeeting is part of home windows version, or what the current version of a similar progam would even be now, but I used microsoft netmeeting for a long time to work from my home office on a PC 1000 miles away, and there was nothing special about it.

EDIT: I see windows calls it "windows meeting space" on newer versions, and that there will be a version issue of all of the involved PCs aren't running an OS that has it (i.e., microsoft implies that it won't connect to an older PC that uses netmeeting).

[Neal Clayton]

VNC

you can specify the port it listens on, then just open that port in the router.

if you use a commonly open port, such as 80, 81, 21, etc. it should work.

VNC is freeware.

[Matt Meiser]

VNC on the internet is a sure way to get hacked quick unless newer versions have been made more secure.

GotoMyPC works well but costs money. If your router doesn't specifically say it does VPN, it probably doesn't. A few options are buying a VPN router, using an open source router package on router hardware (DD-WRT comes to mind) or using an open source router package on a PC (pfSense.)

Some of the VPN routers require a proprietary client. DD-WRT and pfSense both support PPTP VPN which allows use of Windows' built in client. pfSense also supports OpenVPN.

My experience has been that many corporate networks don't allow outbound VPN traffic if you are wanting to do this from work.

[Joe De Medeiros]

The easiest way is to use logMeIn they have a free version, and a Pro pay version. It works with a PC or Mac.

[Jerome Hanby]

The easiest way is to use logMeIn they have a free version, and a Pro pay version. It works with a PC or Mac.

I've got no idea how secure LogMeIn is, but I've used it to remote control the big PC downstairs when I had it transcoding video files. It's a lite enough application that it will run on a netbook! Only real drawback that I saw, is that GotoMyPc would handle screen updates better. I was using Hava's software to record content from my Tivo. GotoMyPc handled the screen updates just fine. With LogMeIn, I had to cause the screen area to redraw (I popped open the file browser window then dismissed it) when I needed to see the new screen contents. Unworkable for actual video, but works fine navigating Tivo menus.

[Bryan Morgan]

Logmein works pretty well, I use it to support friends/family. You can also use TeamViewer which works better, in my opinion and is portable. Something like Hamachi+RDP will work ok too...

[Art Mulder]

VNC on the internet is a sure way to get hacked quick unless newer versions have been made more secure.


The way to use VNC is to tunnel it through SSH.
And I would expect that Dennis is Unix Geek enough to figure that out. :cool:

Personally I just use raw ssh, but that works since my home box has always been some form of unix system (previously Linux, currently Mac)


Those of you who do this already.....what am I missing?

Oh yeah, you also probably want to go to something like dyndns.com and register a free sub-domain so that you can use a DNS name to refer to your home system instead of having to keep track of a dynamically changing IP number

[Mike Null]

Take a look at TeamViewer.

[Jeff Monson]

Take a look at TeamViewer.


Ditto on teamviewer, I use that for payroll at work when I have that day off, it works well and is simple to use.

[Darius Ferlas]

This is what I run on my home server for remote access:

FileZilla FTP server - when I just need a bunch of files from home (set it to some not standard port, NOT to 21, to decrease the number of opportunistic attacks) and to allow others to connect to get files from me.

RDP - when I need to do stuff on the actual machine remotely

VPN when I need to have remote access to my mapped drives that reside on my home computer.

As for the VPN your router will pass the packets without problems.

For all (VPN, FTP and RDP) you need to set your machine to accept connections for the respective protocols and then specify users allowed to connect via those connections.

Each of these connections will use a specific port - TCP, UDP or both. That port has to be open on the PC and that has to be defined in the router too. The router needs to know where to direct the traffic. The port for each type of connection must be different, i.e. you cannot run both FTP and RDP through port 3389.

[Rick Prosser]

Ditto on teamviewer, I use that for payroll at work when I have that day off, it works well and is simple to use.

Another vote for TeamViewer. It gets me thru all the blocking junk at work. Occasionally the service is down, but not too often for me (casual use).

And - it is simple to use!

The refresh rate is too slow to watch video, but OK for most everything else. Can also transfer files. The screen resolution may also be different.

[paul cottingham]

Just to be clear, they are all vulnerable to hacking unless you are using some kind of ssl wrapper.

[Jeff Monson]

Just to be clear, they are all vulnerable to hacking unless you are using some kind of ssl wrapper.

Is that like a condom for computers??

Just kidding of course, I'm the guy that looks for the "any" key to continue.....still havent found it.

[paul cottingham]

Dude, I once had a 10 minute "conversation" with a client who insisted I was a moron 'cause I couldn't tell him where the any key was. Finally told him it was a tech word for the spacebar.

true story.

So don't feel bad.....

[Matt Meiser]

Urban legend is that usability experts say you shouldn't say "any" key but specify a specific key, even when any key really works.