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Remote Access to Your Office Computer
Introduction
Windows XP Professional provides a feature that allows you to securely log in to your office computer from home or another location on the Internet. For example, you can use a home PC or laptop to connect to your office computer and work as if you were sitting directly at it. While connected, you have access to all of the software and files on your office PC, King's fs2 file server and local/network printers. The local computer you use to connect can be running Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, NT 4.0, or XP. You should also have Internet Explorer 3.0 or higher installed on the local machine. This is particularly important if you are using Windows 95.
The remote computer will be used to designate your office computer, and local computer will be the computer you are using to connect to your office computer. While connected, processing takes place on the remote computer, not the local one. Thus, the local PC does not need to be a powerful machine to take advantage of the power and resources of your remote office PC. The essential requirement is an internet connection (preferably high-speed).
Setting up the Office Computer
To begin, your office computer must be left turned on whenever you need remote access to it. It does not, however, need to be left logged in. When you connect to your office computer, a valid username/password is required to gain access. By default, only your personal username is allowed but you may add additional users as well.
To setup your office computer for remote access, enable the Remote Desktop feature in Windows XP Professional. To do this, right-click on My Computer and select Properties. Select the Remote tab and ensure that the box beside Allow users to connect remotely to this computer is checked.
Next, click the Select Remote Users... button. Click Add to insert the usernames of additional people who you wish to grant remote access to. Users who are administrators on the office computer (i.e. your own username) do not need to have to be added since these are automatically given remote access.
You can log off your computer before you leave for home and start a remote session later, or stay logged in to resume an existing session and continue work that is already in progress. For security reasons, it is advisable that you enable a screen saver with a password. This prevents someone else, who has access to your office, from using your logged in account. In any case, someone connecting to your computer remotely can only gain access using a username/password that you explicitly allowed access to. You may power off the monitor when leaving since it is not required for remote access.
Setting up the Local Computer
The software used to connect to your office computer is called Remote Desktop Connection. To install this software on the local computer, you need to insert the Microsoft Windows XP Professional CD in your drive. Click Perform Additional Tasks, then click Setup Remote Desktop Connection and follow the instructions. Social Science Faculty and Staff members may borrow the CD from Information Technology Services. Alternatively, you can download the Remote Desktop Connection software to your local computer and install it without having to borrow the Windows XP CD. The software is located at http://www.kingscollege.net/XPremote/msrdpcli.exe. to the Office Computer
Connecting
Run Remote Desktop and connect to your office computer by clicking the following:
Start > (All) Programs > Accessories > Communications > Remote Desktop Connection
In the Computer field type the full name of your office computer (normally your email user name followed by .kc.uwo.ca - see image above for example). Then, login and work as if you were at your computer - you will experience the same interaction with your office computer as you would sitting in your office. To make it easier to invoke, you may want to create a shortcut to Remote Desktop Connection on your desktop. To do this, select the menu item as described above, right-click Remote Desktop Connection and choose Copy. Then, right-click on the desktop and choose Paste Shortcut.
A particularly useful feature of Remote Desktop is the ability to cut and paste between between your local and remote computers. For example, you can select and copy text from Microsoft Word running on the remote PC and paste it into Word, or another Windows application, running locally. To switch sessions from the remote computer to your local one, minimize the Remote Desktop (click the minimize button at the top-right of the screen). You can switch back to the Remote Desktop session by clicking on your office computer name on the task bar.
Files cannot be transferred directly between the local and remote computers. You can, however, transfer files between your local computer and your remote as attachments via email, or ftp. the Remote Session
Closing
When you are finished working, click Start and select Logoff. If you select Disconnect, you may resume the same session next time you login to your office computer.
