rlneal@ihlpl.UUCP (Neal) (08/28/86)
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I am considering the purchase of a Microstuf software
package called "REMOTE". It is supposed to allow you
to use your PC remotely from another PC or a terminal
just as if you were sitting in front of your PC.
Has anyone out there in netland had any experience
using "REMOTE"?
Any assistance will be greatly appreciated.
Bob Neal @ AT&T
Naperville, Ill
ihnp4!ihlpl!rlnealchapman@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Brent Chapman) (08/30/86)
In article <1246@ihlpl.UUCP> rlneal@ihlpl.UUCP (Neal) writes: >I am considering the purchase of a Microstuf software >package called "REMOTE". It is supposed to allow you >to use your PC remotely from another PC or a terminal >just as if you were sitting in front of your PC. > >Has anyone out there in netland had any experience >using "REMOTE"? We have Remote installed on our AT at work, though we seldom use it. It appears to work well enough, at least for stuff that doesn't play funky games with the hardware. There is a "screen mode" that basicly sends an image of the screen, read directly from memory, instead of duplicating individual screen accesses. This will supposedly work with programs that write directly to video memory, but there is a noticeable overhead. The program will send codes for various terminals and/or emulators. I don't remember if there are provisions for defining new terminals, but I don't think so. The system is "password protected", with a "master password", and seperate individual IDs and passwords for users. This protection is trivial to break if you're on the host machine. I don't remember exactly how I did it (this was several months ago), but it took me about 10 minutes to find the master password (which I had forgotten). Presumeably, it would be just as easy for a "valid" user logged in remotely to break the master. I don't have any knowledge or opinions of its security from external attack. One cute little gotcha, though, which either isn't mentioned at all in the docs, or isn't made obvious, is that you can NOT have an ANSI driver installed if the program is to work. The best way to deal with Remote seems to be to make a special boot floppy just for it (this also makes handling power failures simpler. Now if only the PC had an auto-reboot watchdog circuit... :-) Hopefully helpfully, Brent -- Brent Chapman chapman@cory.berkeley.edu or ucbvax!cory!chapman
rgale@wolf.UUCP (Ryan Gale) (09/02/86)
> I am considering the purchase of a Microstuf software > package called "REMOTE". It is supposed to allow you > to use your PC remotely from another PC or a terminal > just as if you were sitting in front of your PC. Well, not quite. When I played with REMOTE about a year ago (don't recall which version; sorry) I found it worked best if I talked to it using Crosstalk's VT-100 emulation (as opposed to anyone else's VT-100 emulation), but even then it was less than satisfactory. If you're running a program that requires the use of function keys, for instance, no go -- VT-100s don't have PC-equivalent F-keys. I ended up buying CARBON COPY from Meridian Technology (1101 Dove Street, Newport Beach, CA 92660 714/476-2224) which did exactly what I'd hoped REMOTE would do. I have used to run dBase III, Lotus 1-2-3, various wordprocessors, games, etc. without any problems -- just as though I were at the remote keyboard. Additionally, it's pretty smart -- when running 1-2-3, for example, when moving through the commands only the top two lines would be re-sent, rather than the entire screen. Graphics went pretty slowly, but that didn't matter much for my applications. File transfers are very straightforward. It uses a modified "DIR" command which displays an additional column for transfer time; the transfer command itself is simply "COPY RA:filespec LC:filespec", where RA: is 'remote A:' and LC: is 'local C:' -- easy syntax to remember! I've been very pleased with it, and recommend it without hesitation. Bear in mind, though, that this is PC-to-PC -- if you need to talk to your PC with a TRS 100 (for example), this isn't going to work (you need to run CARBON COPY on both machines). Standard disclaimers, of course. -- ------ Ryan Gale ...!sdcsvax!wolf!rgale