Can I control my friend's Tower PC with my T43?

[CRSO]

reason i'm asking is because I am upgrading his video card and RAM for him. He lives in Long Island and I'm in Jersey. He wants to bring in just the tower (to work). Can I somehow hookup that desktop to my laptop?

[tpmwr]

Assuming he is running XP or Vista you can set up "Remote Desktop Connection" (by right clicking my computer and going to properties), and then all you would have to do is hook the computer to your work network and log in via your laptop on the same network. But RDC is NOT the most desirable interface for video card driver install.

[CRSO]

Does it have to be Windows XP Pro? I heard that XP Home doesn't have full Remote Desktop capabilities...

[Kyocera]

It is available in Home but I think you have a limited number of times to connect, tpmwr is right if you are installing drivers from a CD he'll have to put the CD in the machine, you could download the drivers from the mfr website.

info on remote desktop connections

[CRSO]

cool, I'll look into it guys. Thanks a lot...

Yeah, he's gonna have the tower and power cord. I just need to use my laptop to act as a display and use the keyboard. I'll put the CD in the tray of the PC.

[syedj]

Also look into UltraVNC, RealVNC and TightVNC. Another standard non-Microsoft way of remote controlling a machine.

[CRSO]

Also look into UltraVNC, RealVNC and TightVNC. Another standard non-Microsoft way of remote controlling a machine.

I need an internet connection for these though, don't I?

[syedj]

Why yes, of course. Even for Windows' Remote Desktop you will need an internet connection and if you are using a router with the target machine you will need to open that port or at least put the target machine in DMZ for a connection otherwise the router will block any access to these restricted ports.

I think some version of Laplink Pro supports direct dialing into the target machine through the phone line but I have not tried it myself.

[Kyocera]

There's a lot to setting this up "across" the internet" if you're in the same building on the same network it's not so bad but you'll have to configure the router and make sure the ports are open and your pc's firewall's aren't blocking the ports either. The software syedj mentioned may actually be easier to use than manually setting this up.

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[GACrabill]

I may be all wet here but I think that everyone's missing what you're actually trying to do. You seem to want to get a tower up and running with a power cord, no mouse, no keyboard, and no monitor.

If your laptop is using your lcd, how is the tower going to share it?

I use LogMeIn (the free version) to remotely support other towers and laptops .... but they have to be up and connected to the internet in order to get to them.

If you upgrade the memory and the video card and then expect to test it in your office without mouse, keyboard, and monitor ... how will you know that it's up and running with no error messages on the monitor (that isn't connected) ?

If you plan to put in the cards, send it home with the friend hoping that it works, and then want to connect to it remotely to check things, load newer drivers, etc ..... then using a product like LogMeIn to connect remotely works wonderfully.

[CRSO]

I may be all wet here but I think that everyone's missing what you're actually trying to do. You seem to want to get a tower up and running with a power cord, no mouse, no keyboard, and no monitor.

If your laptop is using your lcd, how is the tower going to share it?

I use LogMeIn (the free version) to remotely support other towers and laptops .... but they have to be up and connected to the internet in order to get to them.

If you upgrade the memory and the video card and then expect to test it in your office without mouse, keyboard, and monitor ... how will you know that it's up and running with no error messages on the monitor (that isn't connected) ?

If you plan to put in the cards, send it home with the friend hoping that it works, and then want to connect to it remotely to check things, load newer drivers, etc ..... then using a product like LogMeIn to connect remotely works wonderfully.

I think you said it right there man... I'll do that. Yes, I just wanted to find a way to upgrade any of my co-workers machines with my laptop. I basically just wanted to try and use some sort of a direct connection and not have to configure routers, ports, etc... I knew it probably wasn't possible but wanted to ask anyway.

Now if laptops came with a video in card like a standard monitor that would be great!