Control.com - Nerds in Control

Hello,
I need to work remotely on a computer. I will be in the US and the remote computer will be in Bulgaria in Eastern Europe. I have used PC Anywhere on US to US applications, but never between the US and Eastern Europe. Does anyone have experience with this? Will this work reliably?

Can anyone suggest any other options?

Also, when I specify the computer which will be used in Bulgaria, do I need to specify a special modem? Or will any modem work?

Thank you.
Roger W. Harte
rharte@ewatech.com
http:// www.ewatech.com
Tel: 703-904-5035, Fax: 703-904-5779
EWA Technologies, Inc.
Suite 500
13873 Park Center Rd.
Herndon, VA 20171

Another option is VNC. This program you can dial into the computer and then connect using an IP address. here is the web site for the
program "http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/index.html":http://www.u k.research.att.com/vnc/index.html another good benefit is- It's Free!!!

Hello, Mr Harte,
A few month ago, engineers at Germany used LapLink 2000 to communicate with our protection relays via Laptop PC in Colombia, South America, through a normal telephone line. Fortunately, for us this worked very well.

I know PC Anywhere but I never tried it, however it seems to be similar to LapLink.

LapLink (probably PC Anywhere also) can take control over a remote PC using a Dial-Up network or the Internet, but I never had the opportunity to try those options.

Usually the specifications of the modems are given by the local communication company. for that, you will need to ask they about it.

Luis Rios
lucho_rios@starmedia.com

I have to agree that vnc is the best option you have as it can also work in different environments ( i.e. cross plattform unix-win win-linux, etc). It is easy to implement and also very easy to use as you can have the client run from a floppy (the vncviewer can fit into a floppy disk).

NetOp is another suggestion I have. I have worked with different connections with Asia and South America, that means slow connections.

Good luck
Jorge

Hi,

I personally used VNC between France and Canada and the think works fine. The only problem is that someone must install VNC on the target machine and launch it. If you need to reboot, you need somebody there to launch VNC again.

Gilles Habel

VNC can be setup as a service and the program will automatically listen for a connection.

Or you just install VNC as a service (under NT/2K/XP) or put it in the startup menu (Windows 95/98/ME).

That was the case long ago, but current versions of VNC can be installed as a service.

Mark Blunier
Any opinions expressed in this message are not necessarily those of the company.

Be careful using VNC though, free, highly effective, versatile, software can be habit forming. :^)

Regards

cww

With VNC if you install it as a service:
winvnc -install

VNC will run on every reboot and also it runs before users log on so you can log the computer on if necessary (ie NT)

Chris

I assume you are using a dialup connection in Bulgaria. With rapidly changing conditions in that part of the world I can not say if you need a special modem today. In the past you obtained your modem at the local post office. Importation of modems was prohibited. You need some local advise to know for sure. Compuserve or a Bulgarian ISP might be able to assist.

In terms of performance I would expect the telephone line to be of poor quality. That will mean very poor performance. You would do much better if you could get some other type of service other than dial-up. One can only guess since you didn't specify a city.

Fred Townsend

dear mr. Harte,

i am using PCAnywhere to do remote assistance and troubleshooting from Italy to equipments located as far as Asia and Australia. Connecting with a modem directly to the host workstation performance ranges from lousy to fair, and you
will have to accept frequent disconnections or hangups. The situation improves dramatically if you can connect with your host through Internet (not with a dial-up connection but with a permanent one) you may be able to do tasks such
as debugging or editing a running PC or PLC program as you were sitting besides. Anyway i found the built-in file transfer mostly unreliable and i would not recommend using it. As for VNC, i think it can be a good choice either, although its features are minimal compared to PCA, lacks built-in secure connections (although it can be connected through an SSL socket), and connects only through TCP/IP.
regards

If it is windows, you could also try tight VNC. If it is Un*x you can also use ssh.

Mark
Any opinions expressed in this message are not necessarily those of the company.

You can effectively use PC any where to connect to a remote PC any where in the world. But if you are to modify database or Scada software beware of this.

You must first change YOUR pc DATE and TIME to suit that of the pc to be connected. Then start changing/editing. Because some programs can not
be put back on line again because of corrupted
data base beause you accidentaly changed the date and time. Imagine the date go back by a day and you have already a data base for the next day in that pc!

Hi,
We used to connect 2 pcs, one in the US and the other in Malaysia (Asia). We've tried both PCA and VNC. In my opinion, PCA only give slightly better performance - about 1%!, may be less. PCA cost $$$ but VNC is free. Since the reaction is slow (even though we managed to connect at 40kbps), we would ask somebody at the remote terminal to do whatever we want (like clicking button, executing programs etc).

Thanks,
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