Remote desktop through LAN?

September 25, 2008 12:53 PM

(I know you're not my helpdesk, but...) I'm trying to get some kind of "remote desktop" going between my laptop and my desktop.

So I have a laptop running XP SP 2 or something, and a desktop running Vista (home or premium, but not the really really expensive one that does everything you need). I want to use the laptop as a workstation, and the desktop as the server.

People tell me this is possible through something called 'Remote Desktop' in XP. Problem: there seems to be some incompatibility between XP and Vista.

Important: the connection HAS to be made using the LAN and not via Logmein or teamviewer via the internet, as I want to use it for playing games. Also, PCAnywhere is a bit expensive at nearly 300 $.

Keep your explanations really basic please, because I get confused easily. Thanks.

posted by NekulturnY to computers & internet (12 comments total)

You could look at one of the versions of VNC but even over a LAN I doubt you'll get the refresh rate you would want for playing games.
posted by borkencode at 12:59 PM on September 25, 2008

Playing games over RDP would even be annoying at best. Not a good idea. That said, what 'incompatibility' did you encounter with RDP between the two workstations? There shouldn't be a reason you can't RDP between the two workstations, unless you're having problems with the stupid Windows firewall.
posted by cellphone at 1:02 PM on September 25, 2008

On the Vista box, open up system properties. On the remote tab, set the "Allow connections running any version of Remote Desktop" radio button. That will take care of the compatibility issues, but Borkencode is right. Playing games remotely like that will be largely unplayable using VNC or Remote Desktop.
posted by TheSlate at 1:09 PM on September 25, 2008

I just began using Gbridge today and it's pretty fantastic. You need a gmail account to use. I'm not a gamer, so not sure it will work for you on that front. Thus far I've used it for file transfers and remote destop control and it works great.
posted by tristero at 1:20 PM on September 25, 2008

I want to use it for playing games

What you are trying to do is not a standard use of Remote Desktop and most likely will not work. What exactly are you trying to do? You might be able to use something like MaxiVista to get what you want but I'm not sure what kind of setup you're going for.
posted by burnmp3s at 1:30 PM on September 25, 2008

LogMeIn works great.
posted by tayknight at 2:00 PM on September 25, 2008

What kinds of games?
posted by rhizome at 2:37 PM on September 25, 2008

You can also try downloading the latest Remote Desktop software for XP. I'll also echo that playing games over RDP or VNC will most likely not work. Even if it does, your frame rates will be abysmal even over a LAN connection.
posted by phrayzee at 3:15 PM on September 25, 2008

All of the advice above is sound, but like everyone said, even over a Gigabit connection playing games or doing anything graphics-intensive will be really sucky.
posted by joshrholloway at 4:59 PM on September 25, 2008

Everybody warning you about frame rates is correct. That said, I think you'll find that of the LAN remote desktop solutions available, UltraVNC performs best provided you do choose to install its video hook driver and don't enable encryption during setup.
posted by flabdablet at 5:37 PM on September 25, 2008

Fast changing graphics - > 2-3 frames per second of images or heavy graphic would be very slow over RDP.
posted by bbyboi at 12:50 AM on September 26, 2008

Google Earth is funky over RDP, so I think gaming is out unless you're talking about Minesweeper. Also, I think you can run the RDP client on XP Home but you'll need XP Pro to run the RDP server.
posted by jluce50 at 8:01 AM on September 26, 2008