Creating a remote user

Dara Robinson

How do I do this?

Question though. Is using windows remote user the best way about this?

I have 2 PC's in the same house but 1 is upstairs and the other downstairs. I want to be able to use the PC downstairs from up here with out getting off my ass

OS is XP Pro SP2 and I am behind a router. Also both PC's have Norton 2005 pro, any other info you need just ask

seamus

On the remote machine, right-click on My Computer, than go to "Remote" and tick the "Allow users to connect remotely to this computer" box. Then select the users, and you're done.

Be aware that only one person can use the machine at a time - so when you log in remotely, the machine locks in your name.

beer enigma

This post pre-empted one I was going to put up....I've just completed the action as above, but still have problems:

I have two pc's....both have two accounts on, both with Admin rights and both with the same password for each user account on each pc.

If the remote machine is logged in under ID1 & if I try to connect remotely using ID1, I get a message saying that it cannot log me on due to account restrictions.

If its logged on under ID1 and I try loggin on inder ID2, it tells me that it cant log me on and to check if my username and domain are correct.

I am getting the black screen with the drop down box on both occasions, so it is making the initial connection.

Capt'n Midnight

VNC is another option just open port 5800 and 5900 to the local lan.
it doesn't have all the features of remote but will work with Home or NT or 9x or ME or Linux and even PDA's

Snowball

seamus wrote:

On the remote machine, right-click on My Computer, than go to "Remote" and tick the "Allow users to connect remotely to this computer" box. Then select the users, and you're done.

Be aware that only one person can use the machine at a time - so when you log in remotely, the machine locks in your name.

when you say select the users ... When setting it up on PC2, I cant select the user from PC1 as the locations available are only from PC2. And the user names are not the same. Should I set up a specific account for connecting remotley?

P.S: soz - Same person, forgot my pass for this acc (2 many beers ) so i used the other one temp

beer enigma

Snowball wrote:

when you say select the users ... When setting it up on PC2, I cant select the user from PC1 as the locations available are only from PC2. And the user names are not the same. Should I set up a specific account for connecting remotley?

P.S: soz - Same person, forgot my pass for this acc (2 many beers ) so i used the other one temp

I'd go the VNC route suggested by Capt'n Midnight........tried it yesterday & works sweet as a nut thanks Capt'n

Ginger

The reason you can select PC1 on PC2 is that you dont have a domain.

To use remote desktop with 2 machines

1. Create the same account and password on both machines (this is not neccessary, its more for convienence)

2. On PC1 Make sure that the user has admin rights and the right to log on locally to the machine. Usually this is granted with Admin rights.

3. On PC1 Right click on My Computer and click properties (or double-Click System in Control Panel). Select Remote. Click Allow users to connect remotely to this computer.
Select the username that you want to use. If its the current person and that person is an administrator then they should already have access.

4. From PC2 connect to PC1 using Remote Desktop (This is downloadadble and comes with XP Pro and is usually found in Start->Programs->Accessories->Communications->Remote Desktop Connection). You may have to connect using IP rather than name.

5. Log in as a user that is allowed to log in. If someone is already logged in other than the user that is logging on, this will cause a problem as you will either kick that user or will not allowed to be logged on (I cannot remember which one)

Hope this helps somewhat

** EDIT: Re Andip: On Windows Server 2003 there is a restriction that says that you cant log in multiple times concurrently as the same user. This is mainly a security feature to stop people logging in as Administrator at the same time. You can disable this check in TS Admin in your Administrative Tool section. **EDIT

Snowball

got it working, Thanks Ginger and all the rest for your help

beer enigma

Ginger wrote:

** EDIT: Re Andip: On Windows Server 2003 there is a restriction that says that you cant log in multiple times concurrently as the same user. This is mainly a security feature to stop people logging in as Administrator at the same time. You can disable this check in TS Admin in your Administrative Tool section. **EDIT

cheers

Snowball

Question, how safe is this? I mean the inbuild windows Remote user program?
and if it is unsafe, would a 3rd party program be more secure? (eg: PC Anywhere)

seamus

Yes and no.
At the very least, with Remote Desktop you can specify who can and cannot log in using RDP. So if an account is compromised, it needs to be a Remote User account to log in. With VNC or something similar, any compromised account can be used to log in. This is for Windows XP. Windows Server has different controls in place.

I'm not an expert on either technologies by any means.

Snowball

thanks seamus, think I'll pose this question in Security (something I should have done anyways )