Topic Title

[Mark F. Madura]

Since this subject has come up in relation to the new softlock license management option, I thought I would post this "How-To" from Microsoft on setting up a remote desktop connection.

Easily access your PC from anywhere
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/explore/access-your-pc-from-anywhere.aspx

"Windows Live Mesh is an app you can install on any PC running Windows 7 to access all its files and apps as if you're sitting right in front of it. With Remote Desktop Connection, it doesn't matter where you are. All you need is an active Internet connection and Windows Internet Explorer. It's like having an insurance policy against being forgetful! Here's how to get Windows Live Mesh working for you."

FWIW,

MFM

Thanks, Mark! I'll be setting this up tomorrow for sure!

But what if you are still running XP Pro? I have persisted with this OS and seem to have avoided many, many headaches that have been created with the "more up to date" operating systems. I guess I will have to change one day, but later rather than sooner

Vista was worth the "pass" - but Win7 seems to be pretty rock-solid like XP (unless you have **LOTS** of legacy ("older") peripherals that you don't want to/can't upgrade to Win7).

Maybe also try "LogMeIn" (www.logmein.com) as a VPN? I never tried this as a real desktop replacement but it works incredibly well as a VPN. There's got to be another way under XP to do a remote-desktop log-in!

LogMeIn works great with XP. I use it constantly from my home laptop to get into either my desktop computer or my CAD computer at my office. Last September, I took a quick trip to Alaska with my wife and only took my smart phone. I had LogMeIn on my smartphone and was able to get into my office computer and send a PDF drawing file that a contractor on a jobsite needed back in Florida. Sort of impressed the guy that he wouldn't be stuck without the drawing he needed until I returned.

[Mark F. Madura]

But what if you are still running XP Pro?

For Windows XP, you can follow these instructions ...
Get started using Remote Desktop with Windows XP Professional
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/mobility/getstarted/remoteintro.mspx

"Remote Desktop, included with Windows XP Professional, enables you to connect to your computer across the Internet from virtually any computer, Pocket PC, or Smartphone. Once connected, Remote Desktop gives you mouse and keyboard control over your computer while showing you everything that's happening on the screen. With Remote Desktop, you can leave your computer at the office without losing access to your files, applications, and e-mail."

I've used LogMeIn to access cad files on a server at work, but actually working with the program using DataCAD forces me to use a reduced screen area and try to work with a slow/jumpy screen. Recently, I happened to listen to a Carbonite ad and caught the comment that users can access saved files anytime, anywhere. So a better solution for me, if I need to work on, or refer to, a file on our server back at the office when I'm home or on a trip, it to use Carbonite and simply/quickly download it to my laptop, see what I need to see and dump it, or work on what I need to work on and then be sure to save to the server when I get back to the office (this can't be used if others in the office at the same time are making changes on that particular file).

Dropbox (which is free) can do something very similar.

For more than 2G of storage, Carbonite is cheaper. We have several years of DataCAD backed up on Carbonite, something like 30G of files, I think, but thanks for the heads up, hadn't heard of DropBox.