Thie Cave

During lunch time, I attempted to use the remote desktop connection feature in WinXP. I only tried this for computers through LAN. The next step would be to try this through WAN, e.g. between home and office.

First, I enabled the remote connection in the remote computer. Then, I ran remote desktop connection program in the client computer. I typed in the IP address and it made the connection immediately. Pretty neat. However, I noticed that the remote computer was then locked out. If I login to the remote computer, the remote connection becomes off. So it only allows the computer to be used at one time, unlike VNC. VNC does not lock out the computer and it remains as it is.

Next challenge is to establish connection through WAN.

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After checking some information and playing with the remote desktop connection, it seems that there is no way to establish a remote connection through WAN without using VPN.  I think the  next step would be to use VNC.

This morning I finally got a time to setup my home computer network. The network only consists of a desktop, wireless router and a laptop. I plugged both computers to the router (not using the wireless connection for the first trial). Interestingly, each computer can ping the router and go online but cannot ping the other computers.

I searched the Internet for solutions. Some suggested to install IPX. But I used the network setup wizard to create a home network on both computers separately, making sure that they have the same workgroup. Of course, the firewall was switched off temporarily. And it worked. Yipeee. So I immediately copied all necessary files from the desktop to the laptop.

Then I progressed further. The first step was to bring the firewall back. Few adjustments were necessary to maintain the remote access. The next step was to unplug the network cable from the laptop and let it run using wireless network. It took a while, about a minute, for the wireless network to be fully functional. Interestingly, the wireless network has different IP to the wired network. I think this is because they are different devices and each has a unique MAC address. In order to avoid confusion of having two MAC address with one IP, each device must have a unique IP. Anyway, as long as they work, that will do.

Today I attempted to setup remote desktop connection at the home LAN. The connection is simply between a desktop and a laptop through a router. As usual the Windows help is not helpful in telling me how to enable the remote desktop connection. So I googled “enable remote connection”. Several helpful sites popped up, e.g. http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/mobility/getstarted/remoteintro.mspx. This seems like a straight forward solution.

Now, I have a dilemma. The desktop which is running on WinXP Home has no option to enable remote desktop connection. That is, when I go to the remote tab in the system. There is only one option, remote assistance. But the WinXP Pro has remote assistance and remote desktop. Interestingly, several sites claim that this can be done in both WinXP Home and WinXP Pro. Well…not in my case.

What’s next? Try another solution.

I’m trying to make my office desktop accessible from another computer. If the access is only through local network, LAN, the solution is simply to install and run a VNC server on the desktop. To access it remotely, I can use a VNC viewer. A number of VNC programs are available, such as, RealVNC and UltraVNC.

The problem I’m facing is accessing through Internet, WAN. For example, I wish to access my desktop from a laptop, say at home. I googled for “VNC internet” and found a number of solutions.

One solution recommends using SSH to tunnel VNC traffic, http://pigtail.net/LRP/vnc/. This does not appear to be an easy solution but it looks like an ideal option.

Another solution is to use UltraVNC and Simple Sever, http://www.ezlan.net/vnc.html. This allows a remote computer to browse the desktop. This appears to be an easier solution than the previous one but it only allows file browsing rather than controling the desktop directly.

If the computers are running on WinXP Pro, the remote desktop connection offers an immediate and quick solution.

Anyway, I will start comparing all these methods soon and perhaps write more posts about the performance and usability.

Today was our first visit to the antenatal care at the St George Hospital. We went through a series of questionnaire with a midwife about health-related backgrounds. Towards the end, she asked whether we would like to hear the heart beat of the foetus, to which we answered yes. There it was, the first sign of life of the foetus, a strong and rapid heart-beat.

The first time I ever heard of heart-beat from a doppler-based heart beat detector was when I was testing a similar machine at the same hospital. Back in the Summer of 1997 and 1998, I worked as a technician in the biomedical engineering department at St George. Part of my duties was to repair various medical equipment. After repairing a heart beat detector, I asked my supervisor how I could test whether it was really working. He gave me an ultrasound gel and asked me to try it on myself. Well…What was a surprised…then again actually I shouldn’t be. My next question was whether it was safe to do this. Well of course it had to be. It was part of my job to make sure that the equipment is safe. So I applied the gel on my chest and placed the probe. Then…hey it actually worked. I could hear my heart beating.