(this is all "usually"...since I havent read the 10 posts I cant say if they are talking about this
)
Remote Desktop
This is a way to control one machine from another. Usually it gives a window on one machine that contains the desktop of the other machine. Then mouse/keyboard/screen updates/and sometimes clipboard/printer are passed over the network. Again...it allows you to remotely control another desktop.
There are many flavors of doing remote desktop:
Microsoft RDP, Microsoft cerdisp, VNC, 3rd party programs by Norton, PCanywhere ...
The two computers being connected
(client/server
) do NOT have to be the same operating system.
If you used VNC
(which has clients and servers for almost all types of machines
) you could get your Mac to control your PC. cerdisp allows your XP desktop to control your CE handheld.
So RDP is Microsofts baby. RDP is remote desktop protocol. There are clients and servers for almost all versions of Microsoft OS's XP, 9x, NT.
Unfortunately there is only a client
(viewer
) for the CE type OS's. Which means using RDP you can control your desktop from the PDA but NOT the other way around.
RDP has been ported to other OS's
(linux, bsd, ...
) so it'd be really nice if there was an RDP server for CE. Then any OS could remotely control the PDA.
My guess is the 10 emails youre talking about are an RDP client running on the HPC allowing the HPC to see and control a desktop XP machine. People get excited about this when they have to support lots of XP machines and would rather do it from their local pub.
I'm more excited when I can see/type on my HPC from my desktop. Larger keyboard, clearer screen. Once machine to control them all...
So from your HPC
(or any other CE type device I think
) you can see your XP desktop. See and control.
But you can NOT see your HPC from your desktop XP machine using RDP.
(other solutions in a sec
)
(Cmonex was sort of right...XP has the server built in but NT, 2k, 2k3 also have a version. It may only allow administrators the ability to log in but it is there
).
So what's a CE owner supposed to do when they want to see their CE device through a window on their desktop?
(this is nice cause most of us type faster on a normal keyboard
)
Microsoft PowerTools released a client/server solution that allows you to see/control your CE device from your desktop. It's FREE
I think the link is:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/wce/downloads/ppctoys.mspx
It's slow but it does work. Handy when entering lots of data.
There are several 3rd party programs that do the same. I'm sure they are much better.
Hope this helped...
Bill