iOutput

Do you have an internet connection and want to connect to your desktop at home? Are you a helpdesk technician and want to help your remote clients? Are you home for the weekend and just found out that you left that Excel file you were planning to work on in your office desktop?

This post is all about using your LAN (Local Area Network) or WAN (Wide Area Network) to access remote computers.

The first question that has to be addressed is how the different computers "see" each other. If you're on a LAN, then the different computers are already on the "same" network and may connecto to each other using the local IP address or the computer name. It's just a question of making the right network settings on the computers and routers.

If you're not on a LAN (i.e. out of the office, at the hotel, etc.) then it's a bit more tricky. Computers use a unique numeric address (IP address) to identify themselves on networks. If you're on a local network, the network administrators may choose the right IP configurations to meet their own IT policies. This works for private IP addresses. But local networks need to connect to other networks. In this case, they connect using public IP addresses. These addresses are used to safely identify or local network.

Let me illustrate. The private IP address of my home desktop is, for example, 172.50.50.10 and I'm connected to the internet through a cable modem provided by my ISP. This cable modem also has an IP address which identifies my network to the outside world. This IP address is currently 80.193.221.231, for example, but in a day or two it may change to another address because it's the way ISP's work. So how can you connect to a network if your address keeps changing?

You can solve this in two ways: you either buy a permanent public IP address from your ISP or you use a free tool like DynDns which will basically broadcast your new public IP address everytime it changes.

If you're on a company level, you probably own several fixed public IP addresses which you had to pay for.

So, we addressed the issue of how the different computers "see" each other. But how can I actually connect to a remote computer and what kind of operations can I do?

If you work with Windows at an enterprise environment you probably heard of Remote Desktop. It's a way of accessing remote computers on a network by establishing a remote session i.e. you log in to another computer (as long as you have the right privileges) and perform tasks just as if were physically there. This is a good tool if you're a helpdesk technician and want solve issues where your presence is not necessary.

Other tools are Team Viewer or VNC. But my favourite is LogMeIn.

All you have to do is follow these simple steps:

1) Create an account

2) Access the computer you want to connect to remotely

3) Log in to your account at LogMeIn. Click "Add Computer" and follow the installation procedures (it only takes a minute). Choose a safe "strong" password that you'll need whenever you wanto to connect to this computer. Once this is done, you just have to leave this computer on, every time you want to connect to it remotely.

4) Whether you're at the office, at home, at the airport, or vacation... you just have to log in to LogMeIn, choose the computer you want to connect to and that's it!

LogMeIn takes care of automatically making sure your computer is safely visible over the internet (to you only!).

What can you do with the free version? Basically, you can remote control any desktop computer just as if you were next to it. You can even print documents you open remotely on your local printer...

If you pay for LogMeIn Pro you can also: transfer documents between your remote computer and your local computer, run computer programs on your local computer from your remote computer listen to your personal mp3 collection from work :-)

If you've just installed Windows (XP/Vista/7) and you're thinking, "now I have to install all my programs one by one... If only I had a way to do it automatically!"

Of course, I'm not talking about major software such as Office, Photoshop, etc. which you have to patiently install from scratch. I mean smaller freeware stuff that you must have on your brand new system (AVG, Messenger, Skype, 7Zip, etc, etc)

Well, the answer is Ninite (formerly Volery). Basically, all you need to do is choose the apps you want, create an installer and go drink some coffee. When you come back, everything is installed and ready to run. It even answers those "Do you also want to install a fancy toolbar?" questions by saying "No" for you.

The installer downloads all the software and install is one by one. It's that simple and a big time saver!

Best of all: it's free for personal use!

The only glitch: You might not find every piece of software you want but acording to Ninite, the list will continue to grow (you can even leave app suggestions to be considered in the future)

I've just installed Windows 7 on my desktop computer and I must say I'm impressed!

I've been using Vista since early 2007 and I confess I was one of the "few" people that didn't have that much to say about it. I thought Microsoft had made a quantum leap from Windows XP, although I agree with many who say that the new interface and features wouldn't compensate for the increase of hardware necessary.

I can also relate with systems administrators who didn't quite engage with the initial Vista euphoria and decided simply to wait before deploying it on their network. Windows XP is still used on the majority of enterprise networks throughout the world. In fact, only 10% of companies use Vista today.

Why? Is it because people don't like the new interface, themes, enhanced search, sidebar with gadgets, Flip 3d, etc? I don't think so. I like it. And I also like the improvements that were made by replacing Outlook Express with Windows Mail and by adding Windows Calendar. Also, configuring a network is also very easy and intuitive. You just have to get used to the new interface and understand how the system is organized.

I've never had any complicated problems with Vista except I had to add an additional 1Gb of RAM so that it could flow properly. This was a major setback: hardware! It was just way too demanding! There have also been reports of security issues in Vista, that weren't quite solved with the Service Packs.

Two and a half years later Microsoft launches yet another OS known by the name of Windows 7 (expected official launch date is October 22nd)

Here's what I liked so far:

- Easier to install

- The interface (Aero snap, aero shake, aeropeek, windows flip)

- It's claimed to be the safest Windows ever (we'll just have to wait and see)

- It's easier to configure User Account Control (those annoying security warnings that show up every time you want to install something)

- Blu-ray native support

- Easier to organize your documents (the concept of Library has been introduced)

- New features like sticky notes, screen clipping, new calculator

- Bit Locker to go, easily encrypts your external storage device (pen drive, external hdd, etc.)

- Less harware demanding

- Windows Player 12 supports blu-ray and guess what? It also supports non-Microsoft formats such as DivX/XviD, MPEG4 (H.246) and AAC !!! Wow!!! Apple, beware!

My opinion? Microsoft finally took into account it's customer's feedback on Windows Vista and developed a new product (it may seem that it's Vista Reloaded, but there's more to it than that) that will be around for more than a few years!

Come back soon for the latest Windows 7 tips and tricks!