Remote Desktop software?

[Kaisha]

What the subject says mainly.

All my rigs run WinXP home so I don't have the luxury of the built-in system Microsoft included in the Pro version (nor can I be arsed to mess with my SP2 CD and burn a hacked version which installs Pro...), and was wondering if there are any decent (preferably free) alternatives out there.

Mainly looking for something that does the job, as well as being cross platform.
(OSX on the laptop and all that...)

[Isiolia]

http://www.realvnc.com/vnc/

Used to be more free >.>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compari...sktop_software has some additional ones for support on OS X and all.

[Kaisha]

Nice of them to make Mac support only on the expensive version. <.<

I'll take a look at the alternatives, thanks.

[Kuuhalee]

Do you need to be able to remotely control your Mac laptop? Or do you only need to have a client for the Mac laptop to connect to the other computers?

EDIT: Ah, TightVNC is on that list anyway, which is what I was going to suggest.

[Kaisha]

Mac would be a viewer (nothing breaks on this thing anyways). Will look into TightVNC, although it appears OSX isn't supported, and is done via a Java client if it's desired.......

[The Stig]

www.logmein.com

Sign up for free account. Basic remoting is available. It's more than enough for me to help all my friends and family.

[Shuemue]

www.logmein.com

Sign up for free account. Basic remoting is available. It's more than enough for me to help all my friends and family.

I've used this a couple of times, was pretty impressed.

[Kaisha]

Is it LAN-friendly? I don't want something that has to go over the net to locate another PC on my network.
(would rather keep it all local incase someone in my family screws the PC up and leaves it open to be exploited)

[The Stig]

Is it LAN-friendly? I don't want something that has to go over the net to locate another PC on my network.
(would rather keep it all local incase someone in my family screws the PC up and leaves it open to be exploited)

It's web only, so I doubt it'll go through your LAN :/

[Izzy]

www.logmein.com

Sign up for free account. Basic remoting is available. It's more than enough for me to help all my friends and family.

This.

I have 18 computers that I need to connect to on my account and it's quite possibly the easiest way to do it.

[Norellicus]

www.logmein.com

Sign up for free account. Basic remoting is available. It's more than enough for me to help all my friends and family.

^

Works through firewalls with no special configuration, session authentication is 256 bit encrypted (normal VNC systems use pretty weak ciphers, if any at all), and works as long as the computer is on and connected to the internet, no IP sleuthing needed.