HOW TO ACCESS YOUR COMPUTER REMOTELY
Despite the rise of the cloud, there are many good reasons to access a remote computer. Nik Rawlinson provides a step-by-step guide to doing exactly that
T here are many reasons why you might want to access your PC when you’re not right in front of it. Doing so allows you to use applications that aren’t installed on the machine you’re sitting at, print to your home or office printer so your documents are ready for collection when you return, or retrieve files that you forgot to save to the cloud before travelling.
Microsoft has its own solution: Remote Desktop Connection, which allows remote access to Windows hosts from other PCs, Macs and mobile devices. However, it’s only bundled with Windows 10 Pro. If you’re using the Home variant, you will need to upgrade or try something else.
In most scenarios, we would recommend Google’s Chrome Remote Desktop, which is both free to run and easy to set up and use. All you need to get started is a browser.
Prepare your PC for remote access
Needless to say, you can only connect to your computer remotely if it’s powered on, online and listening out for incoming connections. For this reason, laptops aren’t the ideal remote access hosts as they will need to remain plugged in, which can have a detrimental effect on their batteries. However, if you’re happy to take this hit, there’s no technical reason why they should be less suitable than a regular desktop PC.
Adjust your power settings so that the host PC (the one you’re accessing remotely) doesn’t go to sleep. Press Windows+I to open settings, type “sleep” in the search box and click “Power & sleep settings”. Make sure the second dropdown menu below Sleep (“When plugged in, PC goes to sleep after”) is set to Never. You don’t need to keep the display alive, so either leave the settings in the section above as they stand or set it to go to sleep after a minute.
Make sure your PC has a reliable network connection. Wi-Fi is fine, as long as you can guarantee it won’t drop out. If propagation is poor, consider moving your PC (particularly if it’s going to be used for remote file serving,
in which case it doesn’t need to be easily accessible), or use powerline networking plugs to extend your network coverage over your internal electricity wiring.
Finally, make sure the ports required for incoming connections are open. The process for doing this depends on the make and model of router, but it will be set through its browser configuration screens. Switch to the command prompt, type “ipconfig” and press return. Check the IP address beside Default Gateway and type it into your browser to access your router settings. You’ll probably need an admin password, which is usually attached to the back of the router itself.
Make sure your router, or its firewall, is set to allow outbound UDP traffic and inbound UDP responses, and that ports 443 (HTTPS) and 5222 (XMPP) are open for TCP traffic. In practice, we have never found it
necessary to make any amendments to either our router, its firewall settings or Windows’ firewall settings when setting up Chrome Remote Desktop (or macOS’ security settings when setting it up on a Mac).
Install Chrome Remote Desktop
There’s a reason why it’s Chrome Remote Desktop, not Google Remote Desktop: while it used to rely on a distinct application being installed at either end of the connection, the preference now is to sit in front of a Chrome browser to access the host wherever it happens to be connected. This is something we welcome, as it means you can use any public terminal to phone home, as long as it’s running a Chromium-based browser, and won’t be stumped if the borrowed computer’s admin has blocked app installs. The likelihood of finding any PC without some Chromium variant installed is slim: it’s the predominant rendering engine, powering Chrome (obviously), Brave, Opera and more. I’ve even used Chrome Remote Desktop to remotely control a Windows PC using the default browser built into Raspbian on a Raspberry Pi.
Sharing assets between computers
One of the most useful features of remote access is the ability to swap data and files between the computer you’re using locally and the one you’re accessing remotely. Using the control pane ( see the step-by
step guide on p39), you can set up clipboard synchronisation so that anything copied to the clipboard on one machine can be pasted on the other. Further down, you’ll find options for uploading and downloading files.
Any files you want to send to your remote computer need to be uploaded, and they will be dropped on the host computer’s desktop. Files you want to retrieve from the remote computer are downloaded. Clicking “Download file” opens a Windows Explorer window on the remote machine (visible within the guest browser). When you have located the file you need, click Open and it will be placed in the Downloads folder of the computer you’re using.
Remote Desktop on mobile devices
Google has also made Remote Desktop clients for both Android and iOS. Naturally, when shrinking a Windows desktop to smaller screens, some compromises need to be made, but it’s a successful port. They are free downloads from the iOS App Store ( pcpro.link/300apple) and Google Play ( pcpro.link/300google).
As long as you’re logged in to the same account as your PC, you still only need your PIN to remotely control it. On iOS, tapping the menu lozenge in the lower-right corner lets you switch between using the screen in tap or trackpad mode, which you can toggle on Android by tapping the mouse icon at the top of the screen. In tap mode, a tap on the screen relates directly to the equivalent location on the remote computer. In trackpad mode, dragging your finger across the mobile display slides the remote pointer, although not necessarily perfectly in sync with your finger. This isn’t a problem if you’re happy using a laptop trackpad, as lifting your finger and repositioning feels natural enough.
What’s missing in the mobile implementations is any way to exchange files. The simplest solution in either case is to use your remote access to attach the files you need to an email that’s created on and sent from the remote machine to an address you can access from the mobile device you are using.