StarDestroyer.Net BBS

As I'm a few know, I live in Ottawa, Ontario and my wife lives in Ohio.

Good now to the point. My wife's computer is spazzing out which I think is from that stinking Antivirus2008\virtumonde virus and since neither she nor her parents are tech savvy enough to actually fix the problem and I'm 500miles(800km) away, the computer is basically a basketcase. My wife's father has some important pic\movie files that he'd like burned into a DVD but my wife claims that the computer refuses to burn. Since it will be at most two months before I permanently move to Ohio I need a way to access her computer from mine. Is there a way to access her computer remotely or is she screwed until I can get there? Thanks for any help provided.

What kind of operating systems are on each computer? Vista and XP have Remote Desktop, which lets one computer control another (including keyboard, mouse, and screen) over the internet.

DesertFly wrote:What kind of operating systems are on each computer? Vista and XP have Remote Desktop, which lets one computer control another (including keyboard, mouse, and screen) over the internet.

I use XP Pro and my wife uses XP MCE.

I'd spring for the $20/month and use http://www.gotomypc.com. It's an easy install, and works great.

You can use the Microsoft Remote Desktop feature to connect to the computer remotely. You can access the setting to enable it from system properties / right-clicking My Computer and then finding Remote. You also need to make sure that port 3389 is open to the computer on any router/firewall. Then, from your system, you can connect using Remote Desktop Connection, usually in Accessories/System Tools. Enter the target computer's IP and then the login info.
If the infection is as you state, you'd want to completely wipe the computer's hard drive, which means that any remote access software will be useless, but at least you can check it out.

If remote desktop doesn't work, you can try using Logmein; you'll need her to install it on the target computer for you, though.

I would recommend TeamViewer - The way it runs over port 80 means it doesn't require port forwarding to be setup which in your case would seem to be a much easier solution than other remote control software.

http://www.copilot.com

They have a free trial.

Seggybop wrote:You can use the Microsoft Remote Desktop feature to connect to the computer remotely. You can access the setting to enable it from system properties / right-clicking My Computer and then finding Remote. You also need to make sure that port 3389 is open to the computer on any router/firewall. Then, from your system, you can connect using Remote Desktop Connection, usually in Accessories/System Tools. Enter the target computer's IP and then the login info.
If the infection is as you state, you'd want to completely wipe the computer's hard drive, which means that any remote access software will be useless, but at least you can check it out.

I basically need to access her computer to retrieve certain files so I can burn them into a DVD, when I move then I'll be nuking it.

Thanks for the help, I'll try it before I try the others.

I use TightVNC instead of remote desktop, myself.

http://www.tightvnc.com/download.html