Remote PC
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I am getting a load of work done on the house and I've had an idea (at this point people get nervous, don't know why). It would be nice if the PC wasn't in the living room (noise and esthetics) so I would like the mouse, keyboard, both monitors (each DVI) and maybe USB/audio that can be 15 metres away. Does anyone know of a suitable product that doesn't cost the earth? Thanks. Elaine :rose:
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I have about the same situation, and I managed to have it done in a convenient way for me. Maybe something will work for you. First option - you can create your own home-build pc using a very aesthetic case, which fits nicely in your living room. For this purpose you can use one of the many HTPC / Media center PC Cases. In my situation, I put together a pc using Antec Fusion[^] case. You can create a quite powerful system (Intel Quad Core or AMD Phenom CPU). Mine is not that powerful (only Sempron 3200/1.5GB RAM/320 GB SATA + 160 GB UATA), but it runs quite well WinXP Sp2. I use it as a Media Center (with a TV tunner and MediaPortal software) and with ORB to access it as a streaming server. And it also runs MS Virtual Server 2005 which hosts two virtual machines running 7/24: a Win2003 Server and a Ubuntu linux. Win2003 server runs IIS with ASP.NET (1/2), Sql Server 2005 developer, warftp server, mail server, remote access server, subversion server. Ububtu is running for some tests (I'm not using it very actively). I use the Win2003 server for some tests (IIS hosts demo / test versions of some ASP.NET app I'm working on). The pc is hooked to my Samsung LCD on DVI->HDMI, and have a wireless mouse and keyboard, which I can use from my coach. I can use the TV with PIP, so check the server when needed even if kids are watching tv (with some complains from them, of course). I use a huge CPU fan/cooler, and I tweaked it to be noiseless. And the whole system doesn't even looks like a pc. And second option - you can setup a wifi network in your home, and use a small laptop to RDP to server anytime you need to. I use a MSI Wind laptop either by itself, or to RDP into server when I need to (frankly, the wireless keyboard and mouse I have hooked in my "living-room multi-purpose computer" :) doesn't work very well, and I'm looking for a small and slim bluetooth keyboard). Maybe you can use some of my suggestions to setup a configuration that you can use. Greetings, Bogdan Zamfir
Independent Software Developer Me on LinkedIn[^] My website[
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Graham Bradshaw wrote:
That sounds like your network
Its definitely not the network file transfers are over 50MB/s with large files. I did not say it was not usable just that any lag on basic operations I find to annoying to use for more than a few minutes. I guess my point is I would not use this method for more than a few minutes if the pc I was logging connecting to was in the same building. Now if it was miles away, it would be acceptable as long as I am doing mostly text based operations.
John
John M. Drescher wrote:
did not say it was not usable just that any lag on basic operations I find to annoying to use for more than a few minutes. I guess my point is I would not use this method for more than a few minutes if the pc I was logging connecting to was in the same building. Now if it was miles away, it would be acceptable as long as I am doing mostly text based operations.
I don't remember how to do this, but I do remember disabling transfer of the background image during remote access, and that killed the noticeable delay I had with screen update, FWIW.
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I am getting a load of work done on the house and I've had an idea (at this point people get nervous, don't know why). It would be nice if the PC wasn't in the living room (noise and esthetics) so I would like the mouse, keyboard, both monitors (each DVI) and maybe USB/audio that can be 15 metres away. Does anyone know of a suitable product that doesn't cost the earth? Thanks. Elaine :rose:
Visit http://www.notreadytogiveup.com/[^] and do something special today.
I would definitely use long cables to get the PC connected to the TV. Concerning the remote control, I'm happily using a Logitech diNovo Mini which is using a bluetooth connection. Otherwise, you may consider using LinuxMCE which seem to be a nice thing on a TV.
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As I say below, I just would like the option of not having the PC in the living room.
Visit http://www.notreadytogiveup.com/[^] and do something special today.
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It might be worth considering Cat6 these days; it really depends on whether you are likely to wantthe extra bandwidth later on.
Anna :rose: Having a bad bug day? Tech Blog | Anna's Place | Tears and Laughter "If mushy peas are the food of the devil, the stotty cake is the frisbee of God"
For the distance (15 metres worst case) Cat5e is great for 1Gb/sec. The next big jump is Cat6a for 10Gb/sec so I plan to leave enough space in the channels to draw a larger cable though. I'm not sure what advantage Cat6 would give me.
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I am getting a load of work done on the house and I've had an idea (at this point people get nervous, don't know why). It would be nice if the PC wasn't in the living room (noise and esthetics) so I would like the mouse, keyboard, both monitors (each DVI) and maybe USB/audio that can be 15 metres away. Does anyone know of a suitable product that doesn't cost the earth? Thanks. Elaine :rose:
Visit http://www.notreadytogiveup.com/[^] and do something special today.
Had a similar problem. Got VGA cables. Connected laptop and LCD, far apart (50 ft). Ditto for sound. Et voila, works like a charm. Got wireless keyboard and mouse(About $100.00) and here I am (quite literally) writing to my LCD. Switch to TV-HDTV-DVD/HVS player from remote. Ted
modified on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 2:51 PM
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Had a similar problem. Got VGA cables. Connected laptop and LCD, far apart (50 ft). Ditto for sound. Et voila, works like a charm. Got wireless keyboard and mouse(About $100.00) and here I am (quite literally) writing to my LCD. Switch to TV-HDTV-DVD/HVS player from remote. Ted
modified on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 2:51 PM
At that range (well outside of spec), you're gambling alot if you go with cheapo cables. To an extent so is the driving hardware. My D600 laptop couldn't get a good image to a projector on the other end of a 80' of VGA cable (50 to wall ~30' more in the wall/ceiling) from battery power unassisted. Running on wall power mostly fixed it, but there was still a noticeable (only in comparison) difference between direct connection, and with a powered splitterbox/signal booster in the middle. (The box was intended to let you have a mirror on a monitor while using the docking station in the back of the room, fixing the giant cable to let us work from the front was a bonus.)
Today's lesson is brought to you by the word "niggardly". Remember kids, don't attribute to racism what can be explained by Scandinavian language roots. -- Robert Royall
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As I say below, I just would like the option of not having the PC in the living room.
Visit http://www.notreadytogiveup.com/[^] and do something special today.
You can get top end quality HDMI (any just about any other kind) cables at monoprice.com. Also you can USB to remote the keyboard, mouse AND monitors (companies make USB monitor drivers you can use instead of adding a graphics card inside) and with long enough cables and hubs make the distance you're talking about. Jay
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As I say below, I just would like the option of not having the PC in the living room.
Visit http://www.notreadytogiveup.com/[^] and do something special today.
I have six PC's in my crawlspace (don't ask) all just on the other side of a wall that is common to my living room. I have a kvm switch in the crawlspace (pretty cheap), and I have a nice clean 3" hole drilled through the wall for the cables I need. I have a usb 2.0 dvd burner sitting on my desk connected to one of the systems and then shared to the other ones. I noticed when doing this that it's handy to disconnect the internal dvd/cd/floppy drives from those computers, (since you likely will not be using them) I even rigged up a way to have power buttons for each system in a small bank of buttons on the underside of my desk in the living room, but realized that I didn't use them very often so I removed them. Some of the computers have a bios setting that enable me to wake them when I hit the spacebar on the computer (if you really wanted to shut them off) I've been using this setup very easily for the past 1.5/2 years or so and have found that it cleans up and quiets down my living room. The crawlspace is also a little cooler which presumably is 'good' for the computers. Incidentally I don't have any speed issues whatsoever with remote desktop, and use it regularly and transparently on the network at work. (The settings to reduce the weight of the traffic on the network are easy to find by clicking the 'Options >>' button. Hope this helps
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Hard to replicate two 19" monitors on a laptop. :) /ravi
My new year resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | My .NET bits | Freeware ravib(at)ravib(dot)com
check this out: http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/gxm/th2go/[^]
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check this out: http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/gxm/th2go/[^]
Sweeeet! /ravi
My new year resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | My .NET bits | Freeware ravib(at)ravib(dot)com
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I am getting a load of work done on the house and I've had an idea (at this point people get nervous, don't know why). It would be nice if the PC wasn't in the living room (noise and esthetics) so I would like the mouse, keyboard, both monitors (each DVI) and maybe USB/audio that can be 15 metres away. Does anyone know of a suitable product that doesn't cost the earth? Thanks. Elaine :rose:
Visit http://www.notreadytogiveup.com/[^] and do something special today.
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You can get top end quality HDMI (any just about any other kind) cables at monoprice.com. Also you can USB to remote the keyboard, mouse AND monitors (companies make USB monitor drivers you can use instead of adding a graphics card inside) and with long enough cables and hubs make the distance you're talking about. Jay
feanorgem wrote:
(companies make USB monitor drivers you can use instead of adding a graphics card inside)
AFAIK these adapters all still suck when trying to game or watch video because of low bandwidth.
Today's lesson is brought to you by the word "niggardly". Remember kids, don't attribute to racism what can be explained by Scandinavian language roots. -- Robert Royall
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check this out: http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/gxm/th2go/[^]
The catch (if you like maximized apps) is that your OS will see a single ultrawide screen, not 2 or 3 separate monitors.
Today's lesson is brought to you by the word "niggardly". Remember kids, don't attribute to racism what can be explained by Scandinavian language roots. -- Robert Royall
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I am getting a load of work done on the house and I've had an idea (at this point people get nervous, don't know why). It would be nice if the PC wasn't in the living room (noise and esthetics) so I would like the mouse, keyboard, both monitors (each DVI) and maybe USB/audio that can be 15 metres away. Does anyone know of a suitable product that doesn't cost the earth? Thanks. Elaine :rose:
Visit http://www.notreadytogiveup.com/[^] and do something special today.