VPN remote question
 

Yet another computer question:

I have my office server set up on MS Server 08
Workstations are running Vista Home Premium 64.
Router is a Netgear 318 with VPN.

I can successfully vpn in and control the server with Windows Remote
Works very well.

Since the workstations are on Home Premium 64 the remote is disabled, yea I know, should have loaded Ultimate and all would work fine.

I order to save some cash, I want to install some free remote clients on my workstations, laptop and home desktop.

Anyone recommend something?

If you're saying that you can open an IPSEC VPN connection to your router from a remote PC, then try here for a list of ipsec vpn clients for vista x64

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929490

Try VNC.

Apparently there's a Vista compatibility problem that only UltraVNC's resolved: http://www.uvnc.com/download/
This works provided you know the IPs in advance.

Why do you have a server with Vista Home clients? They can't authenticate to AD. What's the point?

Thats what i was going to say...

Yes I realize that the Home products were a mistake due to the Domain issues and the lack of remote. I found a great deal on some new workstations and did not realize the limitation of the Home products, I know now. We will upgrade to Ultimate 64 as soon as an update for our business software comes out. In the meantime, we are back to using a simple file server and need to remote into 1 box.

Or I could just breakdown and give MS a little more cash. That's the best answer.

That was my initial, "smart a$$" answer when I read your first post in this thread, but I didn't respond :)

Are you trying to RD to the Vista boxes, or from them? I thought that all Vista flavors came with the client, but you just can't connect to a Vista home box.

If you are trying to RD to the Home PCs, then yeah, you need some sort of 3rd party app. Lots of people have had good luck with VNC, and you can't beat the price.

Home boxes can't authenticate against AD, but you can use domain resources, you just need to use domain\user or user@domain when it prompts for credentials.

ON EDIT: I also found this: http://www.unet.fi/fransblog/2007/08/30/enable-remote-desktop-connection-on-vista-home-premium/
Didn't try it, can't guarantee it isn't some malware, but I did find it linked in a couple different places with different people reporting success.

Tom

I've also seen that Home Premium RD hack. I had considered it, but it sounds like it is a bit invasive to me. I wouldn't want to hack the OS quite that much. I've got a copy of Ultimate, and my PC is running Home Premium. I've tried the "upgrade", but it didn't work. I think I need to save my settings, and just do a fresh install and then restore my settings.

From the looks of things, it just adds and configures the service as it is on the Windows versions that come with it enabled.

Again, never tried it, but I wouldn't be afraid to if I needed the functionality. Just be prepared to reinstall if things go bad. Maybe get a disk image first?

Tom