Viewing Multiple Computers

[Infrared digital]

Hi

I want to be able to have access to any machine in the office from one central computer - what is the best way to do this ?

Thanks

N

[trixian]

I'm personally very fond of LogMeIn, but that's just because of ease of use and having access from anywhere on the planet.

[Olli96]

If you just want to start the vrayspawner or backburner servers then take a look at this nifty tool: http://www.iasys.de/news.php?content=11&index=1
make sure you download the vray and backburner scripts.

[sv]

I'm personally very fond of LogMeIn, but that's just because of ease of use and having access from anywhere on the planet.

agree 100%.
Logmein is great. Use it almost hourly to access computers all over the country!

[trixian]

If you just want to start the vrayspawner or backburner servers then take a look at this nifty tool: http://www.iasys.de/news.php?content=11&index=1
make sure you download the vray and backburner scripts.

Hmm...first impressions of that site gives me the creeps.
In addition to that......my German is pretty rusty.

Edit: Never mind....my brain was distracted from the English text by the awful design and graphics

[Infrared digital]

Thanks for your help !

[thablanch]

From the office, RealVNC works quite fine,it is for local network

[judderman]

I put hamachi on the machines then use XP's in built Remote Desktop to connect to machines. Works well for me.

[rmejia]

Another vote for LogMeIn. It's free and works.

[dlparisi]

I've used http://www.tightvnc.com/ for a couple of years now. It's free and works great for me on my small renderfarm. If you make sure the proper port is open on your router you can even access it via the web via the java applet.

[trixian]

One of the nicer features that initially got me using LogMeIn, was that I could then completely avoid any router port issues for both internal and external use, which is a real pain in the a$$ if you need to access the machines from somewhere with dynamic ip.
Second bit is the finesse of desktop rendering.
I have never seen any other remote desktop app that handles resolution differences as well, or at all. It even interpolates so you get a nice anti aliased view of the desktop.

[jonasa]

Also been using tightVNC for years now - only thing to keep in mind is that some hardware accelerated overlays wont show, ie. 3dsmax viewports doesn't work with directX but ok with OpenGL.. don't know if that is a local issue though.

[dlparisi]

One of the nicer features that initially got me using LogMeIn, was that I could then completely avoid any router port issues for both internal and external use, which is a real pain in the a$$ if you need to access the machines from somewhere with dynamic ip.
Second bit is the finesse of desktop rendering.
I have never seen any other remote desktop app that handles resolution differences as well, or at all. It even interpolates so you get a nice anti aliased view of the desktop.

There are ways to get past the dynamic IP problem with tightVNC. The ones I use are free as well but require a few more steps to set up. You can request a free DNS from http://www.dyndns.com/services/dns/dyndns/ and along with the IP updater http://www.dyndns.com/support/clients/ it will keep you DNS linked to your dynamic IP. From there you can use either the java web applet (point your browser to "DNS Name:5800") or use the regular tightVNC viewer (just direct it to DNS Name with no port #). The web applet will not scale the screen size but the regular viewer will scale it pretty smooth. That said some of the features of LogMeIn look pretty nice, especially the drag and drop, it's just not free like I like it.

Also been using tightVNC for years now - only thing to keep in mind is that some hardware accelerated overlays wont show, ie. 3dsmax viewports doesn't work with directX but ok with OpenGL.. don't know if that is a local issue though.

My 3dsmax viewports work just fine with tightVNC and Direct X (maybe it depends on the video driver). I do have problems with PS CS3 though that some of the borders don't show (e.g. the frame around the layers palette).

[glorybound]

Hamachi

Hamachi from logmein with remote control. Works like a charm!

[trixian]

There are ways to get past the dynamic IP problem with tightVNC. The ones I use are free as well but require a few more steps to set up. You can request a free DNS from http://www.dyndns.com/services/dns/dyndns/ and along with the IP updater http://www.dyndns.com/support/clients/ it will keep you DNS linked to your dynamic IP. From there you can use either the java web applet (point your browser to "DNS Name:5800") or use the regular tightVNC viewer (just direct it to DNS Name with no port #). The web applet will not scale the screen size but the regular viewer will scale it pretty smooth. That said some of the features of LogMeIn look pretty nice, especially the drag and drop, it's just not free like I like it.


My 3dsmax viewports work just fine with tightVNC and Direct X (maybe it depends on the video driver). I do have problems with PS CS3 though that some of the borders don't show (e.g. the frame around the layers palette).

Well, not being very web-tech savvy, this Is the exact reason I opted for logmein (tried using no-ip.org's host software with the standard approach)....free version first for basic remote control, later on the pro version as it is quite cheap.