Remote Desktop in Windows XP Professional: The Next Best Thing to Transporter Beams

Editor's note: The Remote Desktop technology in Windows® XP Professional lets you operate a computer from a remote location. Expert Zone columnist and independent contributor Charlie Russel uses Remote Desktop to avoid those weekend trips to the office.

Like many business people these days, I have two very different computing environments—my office and my home. www.tartoos.com

At work I have my corporate e-mail, connections to various shared drives on the network, a high-speed Internet connection, and some fairly boring but crucial programs to do my daily work.www.tartoos.com

My home environment is quite different. The actual horsepower is similar (at least at the machine level), but there the similarity ends. I have different e-mail, no connection to the company network, and a different mix of programs, to say the least. www.tartoos.com

With Windows XP Professional and Remote Desktop, these differences really don't matter. I can work from my desk at home almost as if I were sitting at my desk at work. In fact, on my home computer I see exactly what I see when I'm at my office PC, because I'm actually working on my office computer.www.tartoos.com

In the past, the technology behind Remote Desktop (Windows Terminal Services) was only for servers. That somewhat limited its usefulness, except in fairly specialized environments. Windows XP Professional provides this technology for desktop users, giving us a great tool to make our lives easier and break the chains holding us to our desks. (The Remote Desktop hosting functionality is not available in Windows XP Home Edition, though you can use Windows XP Home Edition as a client to the computer running Windows XP Professional.)

No More Office on the Weekendwww.tartoos.com

Before now, when I needed to work on a presentation or report for the Monday round of meetings that seem to be the norm, I had little choice but go to the office during the weekend to finish them. Not any more! I still have to do the work, but now I can do it at home. I can even print the copies on the office printer before I leave my house—they'll be sitting in the printer tray ready to go when I get in on Monday morning.

Not only is this a huge boon on the weekends, it gives me much more flexibility during the week as well. When my garbage disposal broke last week, I was able to schedule a repair person to come and replace it the very next morning. I could stay at home and wait for him and still work as effectively as if I were sitting at my desk at work. This gives me the flexibility to work from home without having limited functionality. I can even duck out of town for a long weekend and work over a dial-up line.

What You'll Needwww.tartoos.com

So what are the pieces required? Well, first you need Windows XP Professional on your computer to serve as the Remote Desktop host. (In my scenario, this is the office computer that I want to use from home.) You need a client machine. (In my scenario, it's my home computer.) Actually, your client machine can be any machine on which you install the Remote Desktop client software. It can run Windows XP Home Edition, Windows XP Professional, or any version since Windows 95. The Remote Desktop client software is not supported on Windows for Workgroups 3.11 or Windows NT® 3.51-based machines, but you can use the older RDP 5.0-based Terminal Services Client software. However, you will miss the newer features such as high color and audio support, drive redirection and the ability to dynamically turn off desktop wallpaper when connecting remotely.www.tartoos.com

If you don't have the client software installed, if you borrow a friend's computer, for example, there is an alternative. Remote Desktop Web Connection allows you to access your host machine over the Internet using Internet Explorer. You must have Internet Information Services installed on your host machine, and the performance will not match what you get using the client software.

Your Internet Connectionwww.tartoos.com

Usually, you'll need an Internet connection—preferably a digital subscriber line, cable modem, or other broadband connection, but I've used a hotel room dial-up connection at 28.8 Kbps more than once and it's really quite useable. With a 56k dial-up connection, you'll notice some slight hesitation as you wait for characters you've typed to show up, but it's certainly not onerous. With a 128k DSL or ISDN connection, you will get excellent performance.

If your company supports it, you may be able to dial in directly to the company's local area network, avoiding the requirement to get on the Internet first. But generally, when you aren't on the LAN, you'll need to get on the Internet to use Remote Desktop. If you can ping the host machine, you should be able to make a Remote Desktop connection.

Once I have connected to the host machine in my office, that computer is locked, so nobody can use it or watch it to see what I'm working on. The Remote Desktop traffic is also encrypted using a 128-bit encryption key, so it's very secure.

Using a Virtual Private Networkwww.tartoos.com

Once you're on the Internet, you'll need a way to get in to your company network. Since virtually all companies have some form of firewall, this requires creating a virtual private network (VPN) between your computer at home or in the field and your company network. Since each firewall has different requirements, and the policies for each company are different as well, the mechanics of creating a VPN connection differ. Work with your company IT department and you should have no problems. At our company, we use a Windows 2000 Server-based system running Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server and Routing and Remote Access (RRAS) services to create the VPN, giving us an all-Microsoft solution. It's simpler for the IT staff to maintain and, in our experience, easier for the users as well. Different environments will have different needs and requirements, but in almost all cases will provide equivalent functionality.

Remote Desktop is a Winnerwww.tartoos.com

Remote Desktop gives the power of Windows Terminal Services to the end user to make the computing experience easier, more natural, and more powerful. Personally, I think this is one of the biggest gains in Windows XP for business users. But then my wife thinks it's an even bigger gain for the home, so I guess we all agree it's a winner.www.tartoos.com

Charlie Russel is currently an information technology consultant, specializing in combined Windows and UNIX networks. He's also the co-author (with Sharon Crawford) of Running Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0, and the Microsoft Windows 2000 Server Administrator's Companion, and co-author (with Linda Gaus) of SCO OpenServer: the Windows Network Solution.