For my second two week project, I wanted to look into remote access to my computer both from another computer as well as my phone. This is still geared towards what I would like for my seven week project, but it's one step closer than the previous one which was setting up a VPN server.
Setting up a remote access server is as easy as enabling it and setting some characteristics of the server. For example, you can name both the server that you're hosting as well as each individual guest that is able to log onto the computer remotely. After this, it's as easy as clicking OK and then logging on.
In order to connect to a desktop via remote access, it is fairly similar. Windows has a program that allows the user to type in the name of the computer they want to access and then enter their credentials to log in. After logging in with the proper credentials, a window pops up with a video of what is happening on the computer that the server was set up on. From here, you can do basically do anything you need with your computer from a remote location.
The last thing I experimented with was accessing my computer through my phone. There is a handy app called "Unified Remote" that I looked into for this. Basically, there are two parts to the app. The first part goes on your phone and the other goes on the computer you wish to access your phone from. With both these programs installed, you can easily access your computer by finding and connecting to the appropriate server.
My only issue with accessing the computer remotely through a smartphone is that the unified remote app (at least the free version) is that you can not see what is happening on the screen unless you are watching the computer that the server is set up on. Other than that, the Unified Remote app works phenomenally especially due to the fact that everything is going through the internet as opposed to just over the network.
