Can I remotely operate a networked computer?

[Matt L]

I'm relatively new to networking and have a question. We are running Win 2000 on our main office computer, and win 95 on a second computer that is networked to it. The only purpose of the second computer is as a print server. It is needed to handle a ticket printer that does not like Win 2000 in any way shape or form. Had to opt for Win 95 since it is a 486 with 12M of memory. Now the question is can I somehow remotely operate the second computer, by that I mean use a terminal window on the main computer to see what is going on in the 486 and open and run a program on the 486 from the Win 2k machine. I basically want to eliminate the monitor and keyboard from the second machine, but I do need to be able to see any error messages and restart the printing process. It works fine now with it's own equipment but we really don't have the space available to house all this stuff.....

PS. the budget is tight, need to do this for cheap or free...

Thanks, Matt

 

[ktwebb]

Netmeeting is free and does have a remote dekstop option, although it is pretty slow, even over a 100Mb network, but the price is right.

 

[kw7]

Just want to ask are you familiar with Linux?? If you do, you should have no problem setting up the hardware you need, also the system requirement of linux is much lower than Win95 if you don't use X. I think it is a much reasonable choice since telnet server is very easy to be set up in linux and via telnet, you can control the linux box through a terminal from Windows. I personally is using such setup to control my linux box which has no monitor with it.

 

[Chatterjee]

http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/index.html

 

[Spiff]

VNC - mentioned above is free
Netmeeting - mentioned above is free
PCAnywhere - relatively inexpensive
there are other remote control utilities as well that you can purchase for fairly low cost at CompUSA, Best Buy, or anywhere that sells software

 

[BCYL]

I would suggest using Freesco Linux on your 486. It is very easy to setup and lets your PC acts as a print server. It is very fast since it runs on a ramdrive, and uses as little as 6MB RAM. It has telnet service so all u need to do is telnet into freesco to see what's going on there...

I think Freesco will do exactly what you want, and it's absolutely free for download...

 

[goldboyd]

another vote for vnc here, assuming you're running tcp/ip. its great. i use it all the time at work to get acess to my box at home. but you will have to keep your keyboard hooked up to the old box, or you'll have a little issue posting.

 

[Matt L]

Hey, thanks for all the input. I hadn't thought about netmeeting, that might work but my concern is the low memory amt. This thing runs soooo slooow now. I've played with LINUX a little, but I don't think it's an option since the software needed to run the ticket printer is quite old and very picky. We have a travel agency and the ticket printer is on the SABRE system. They only truly support Win 95, I had to get to some of the top tech people to get a firewall that would work with Win 2000 and their system. I guess we are one of 2 or 3 locations in the country using this setup. It's fun running a high tech business when your key supplier is DOS and Win 95 based.


Update, just went to the vnc site and it looks like just what I'm looking for. The JAVA app. looks interesting, I might try it too. Thanks!