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You may be able access your office computer from other computers, called remote access. With Remote Desktop on Windows XP Professional, which should be on your office computer, you can have access to a Windows session that is running on your office computer when you are at another computer. This means, for example, that you can connect to your work computer from home and have access to all of your applications, files, and network resources as though you were in front of your computer at work. You can leave programs running at work and when you get home, you can see your office computer’s desktop displayed on your home computer with the same programs running.

I. Computer Requirements

• Your office computer must be running Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2 as well as a connection to a Local Area Network (LAN) or the Internet. For more information about Local Area Networks, please visit the following Wikipedia site by clicking here.
• Your home computer must be running Windows XP Home or Professional, have Remote Desktop Connection installed, and have access to a LAN via modem or Virtual Private Network (VPN). For more information about Virtual Private Networks, please visit the following Wikipedia site by clicking here. More information on using the UA VPN to connect to your office computer using an on-campus wireless access point can be found by clicking here.
• It is not required that you have a VPN connection to connect to your office computer from home; however, you will need a LAN connection. If you choose to use the VPN on your home computer, you must both register your Bama email account and create a VPN connection. Visit the HelpDesk to complete these steps.

II. In the Office

The following steps will only need to be done once.

On your office computer, select Start and right-click on My Computer. Select Properties.

Select the Remote tab. Below the Remote Desktop heading, check the box next to "Allow users to connect remotely to this computer" (Step 1) and then write down the full computer name.(Step 2) Finally, select OK. (Step 3)

III. At Home

The following steps will allow you to connect to your office computer from your home computer and will need to be repeated each time that you wish to do so.

If you decided not to use the VPN connection from home, skip to the next step. Otherwise, you may recognize this step as having been completed at the end of the steps for creating a VPN connection, but it will need to be repeated each time you log on to the UA VPN, so it is included here also. If you created an icon for the UA VPN on your desktop when you created your VPN account, then double-click the icon. Otherwise, select Start, Connect To, (possibly Show all connections), then double-click the UA VPN icon. Log on with your Bama email account user name and password.

Select Start. Select Run. Type the command "mstsc", without quotations, and select OK to access the Remote Desktop Connection. (Alternatively, you may select Start, All Programs, Accessories, (possibly Communications), then Remote Desktop Connection.)

At the prompt, type the full computer name of your office computer and select Connect.

You will then be asked to Log On to Windows. Enter your user name and password for your office computer and select OK. You are now connected to your work computer from your home computer through the LAN (and, if you chose the option, the VPN).

When you connect to your computer at work from another computer, Remote Desktop automatically locks the computer so no one else can access your applications and files while you are gone.

You may terminate the Remote Desktop Connection from your home computer by moving your mouse pointer to the top of the screen and selecting the small “X” from the right-hand side of the trapezoidal tab.

If you initiated a VPN connection on your home computer, then you should also terminate it: simply select Start, then Connect To, right-click on the VPN connection, and finally Disconnect.

You may terminate the Remote Desktop Connection from your computer at work by typing CTRL+ALT+DEL and then typing in your user name and password.