Remote Desktop

[peanut]

Hello everyone,

Is it safe to use remote desktop? I have a good strong password and security software but i'm not sure if the connection between the host and the remote computer can be intercepted. I saw in windows help menu that you should not use the administrator account for this for security reasons. The thing is that all i have is the admin acct because i don't want to have to choose a user every time i start my puter and have to type the password. How about a program I've heard about called PC Anywhere? does anyone know anything about that? I know this is actually 3 questions in 1 but they all pertain to each other. Thank you.

[Finance Guy]

I too use RDC and asked my I.T. guy the same question last week.

He said that it was 'adequately secure' and that our system is safe as the RDC accesses my PC via a 'login server'. This server does not contain any document storage or software as that is on a seperate server that the PC will securely access, once i'm logged in to it.

Obviously I do not know what your set up is but he said that if it were just PC to PC direct then it is not very secure, particularly if wireless internet is being used at one or both ends.

This is the exact answer he gave me, I have no real understanding of what I just typed, so cannot be held responsible ! lol

Hope it helped a bit

Good luck

[peanut]

Thank you Fiance Guy, I'm also currently having a problem making a connection to my computer from another location. I can do it from one computer at home to another home computer no problem. but when im at another location away from home, i dont know how to make the connection. any ideas? I do believe the host computer is properly set up so i need to know what the remote computer needs and how to make the connection. Thank you.

[mikeyp]

Remote desktop connection seems fairly secure to me. It uses standard encryption, which is very hard to break, certainly in the time that your data is useful to anyone. Wireless is unsecure, but if it's encrypted too then there really isn't an issue. There was one vunerability where the client (computer you're connecting on) doesn't check to make sure the server is who it says it is. This seems to have been fixed in XP SP2. See here:

http://www.securiteam.com/windowsntfocus/5EP01 0KG0G.html

I'm not sure why you're having trouble connecting to your computers remotely. You will want to make sure you're firewall is not blocking you, I think port 3389 is the one that needs to be open. Also, make sure your computer is accepting remote connections:

Start -> Control Panel -> System - > Remote tab

Make sure the box to allow connections is checked. You can also see your computer's full name and domain which i think is the address you should use when you connect.