I just finished installing this and am extremely impressed with that capabilities of the software. For those that don't know what VNC (Virtual Network Computing) is, it gives you the ability to log into and control your desktop PC from the outside.
This is awesome for starting torrents from work to be ready when you get home, tweaking settings on any servers you have set up on your computer, basically anything you wish you could do on the go from your desktop but couldn't because you're out of town, at work, dragged out somewhere with your wife, etc.
It's pretty simple to set up. You just need to install the server on your desktop, forward port 5900 for both TCP/UDP on your router for the IP address your desktop holds on your LAN, and use the client on your PPC.
I chose Real VNC because it seemed to get pretty good reviews but if there are others out there with better suggestions I'd love to hear them. I'm pretty impressed with Real VNC's performance though, it is efficient and to the point.
I've attached all the files you need to get this up and running for future reference.
vnc-4_1_3-x86_win32.zip is the server that needs to be installed on your desktop PC.
After you install it, you need to log into your router and forward port 5900, or whichever port you choose to use for the server. (I'm not going to get into port forwarding here, but you should be able to figure it out. Pretty simple stuff for us geekers, but if you're having trouble check out
http://www.portforward.com)
After that, get your external IP address from
http://www.whatismyip.com. You'll use that IP address in the client (
VNC_MOBILE.zip) from your PPC to log into your desktop PC.
I selected full colour display in the client to make it look pretty and because I'm on a pretty solid connection here, but if it slows down or if you're really far away (ie: latency is high) you might want to drop it down to 256 colours or less.
Note: Remote Desktop is already installed on the TP2, but I like the fact that the current user is not logged out when VNC is used. Remote Desktop works pretty well too but I think this solution is slightly better.