Remote Desktop : Connecting to a WinXP machine ?

[Vincent Trouilliez]

Hello,

I think I have just come across my first real world opportunity to try
remote administration: I am in France, and my best friend in Germany,
1000kms away, uses Windows XP, doesn't know the slightest thing about
computers, and is having problems configuring/using his e-mail client to
use a second e-mail address.

So I told him "hey, gimme your IP address and my cool Penguin will sort
you out remotely, you'll see it's magic ! " ;o)

Since he really is disabled when it comes to computers, I would like to
sort all the details out, so that it works first time with him, if
possible.

So far I have installed the "Terminal Server Client" applet.
It gives me the following fields in order to connect to the remote
machine:

- Computer/IP
- Protocol : RDP / RDPv5 / VNC
- User Name
- Password
- Domain
- Client Hostname

By putting my own IP address and selecting the "VNC" protocol, I was
able to see myself, which worked fine (though a bit "disturbing" ! ;o).

However I don't know how to connect to a Windows XP machine, what
protocol it uses, and if I should specify anything in the other fiels,
especially the "Domain" and "Client Hostname" fields.
I tried searching for help in Yelp, but failed to see any documents
related to this applet.
I installed Windows XP inside VMWare on my machine, hoping I could test
it locally, but the applet times out when trying to connect :-(

So I would really love to hear from someone who has actually done it.
Ideally, if someone is on-line (I won't go to bed before 08:00 UTC I
think) with a Win XP machine that I could try connecting to (in
read-only mode of course ;-), that would be great :-)

Thanks for any help...

Regards,


--
Vince