How to control my PC away from home

[erabyss]

I am buying my 8yr old niece a notebook for Christmas. My anti-tech sister and her BF know less about computer than my 4yr old nephew. HAHA, yall know how kids are. I want my niece to have the chance to start learning about computers as young as possible but I want her to be safe. I have no doubt that she will be able to out wit her mom when it comes to parental controls. But since they live in another state I cannot be there to enforce the proper settings. I will have my hands on the system before I ship it to her, so I can install some things and adjust some setting.

Heres my question.

Is there a way to set her computer up so I can have access and control of it from here? I would gladly research this myself. Well I am about to start trying. I just don't know where to look.

Any help, tips, ideas, links, or even just the name for what I am talking about would be a huge help.

Thank you everyone.

 

[Screamsalvation]

Have you looked into Symantec's pcAnywhere? I have personally never used the software but have spoken with a couple of people that have and they seemed to like it.

 

[picohat]

If that notebook is connected to Internet, you might try to use VNC or Microsoft Remote Desktop to control it remotely.

Hope helps...

 

[CalcProgrammer1]

I use VNC to control computers over LAN. I have a computer upstairs that I can access remotely from my computer area in the basement, or vice-versa. I can use my wireless laptop to access any of them. You can also use this software on the Internet. I use TightVNC, so try finding that.

 

[erabyss]

Awsome, thanks guys. I know where to look now.
LOL, I really should know more about it than I do. Thank god for the internet (well thank satin, big brother, or what ever big evil thing is to blame for this contraption), I wont be ignorent for long.

 

[erabyss]

Reading about this it sounds very useful. I might have to use it myself.

1 question:

My PC (I dont use often) runs XP. My notebook (my main system) is duel boot (suse/vista).

Does the OS of the client machine make any difference? I would install the software on my XP PC and what to access it with my duel boot notebook.

Can I expect any difficulties when trying to access (and use) my PC thru linux?

 

[CalcProgrammer1]

The VNC protocol is nice because it's popular and open-source. There are VNC clients for nearly every platform out there. There's TightVNC for Windows (95 at least to XP, I'm pretty sure it'd work on Vista but never tried) as well as numerous VNC clients for Linux (I tested one from Synaptic in Ubuntu, worked fine to access my Windows 98SE FTP server). Actually, I even used VNC client for my PocketPC PDA to access a Windows 98 machine as well as my Nintendo DS to, well, attempt a VNC connection to my Windows 98 machine. All I got from the DS was a touchpad keyboard, but still, it goes to show that VNC is widespread, unlike Windows XP's Remote Desktop Connection. There's also VNC clients for Mac too (obviously) if you need that. And because VNC clients all use the same protocol, you'll have no problem in cross-platform communication. You can seamlessly access a Linux VNC host from a Windows VNC client, a Windows host from a Linux client, a Windows host from a Windows client, or a Linux host from a Linux client, etc.

 

[erabyss]

Wow, The more I learn about computer the more I love them.

Im off to bed now. Thanks guys. Tom will be a(nother) day wasted researching more ways to use my computer.

 

[dcyriac]

www.LogMeIn.com has some great tools using which you will able to take contol of remote computers.

 

[Bruce]

www.LogMeIn.com has some great tools using which you will able to take contol of remote computers.

I agree