Eric Wise

Check out Windows XP Remote Assistance feature:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/learnmore/remoteassist/intro.mspx

Clicking the remote desktop sharing doesn't seem to persist over reboots... maybe I'm doing something wrong?

Sadly, not all of the clients are windows xp, so remote assistance isn't of much use at the moment.

Let me make a suggestion. Wile it may be a little more complicated I think it makes for a better solution.

First of all is the user behind a firewall? I assume yes, but maybe not. (Also broadband on both ends helps).

You could use OpenVPN (OpenVPN.sf.net) to create a quick and dirty VPN tunnel. Then the user could for instance turn on Remote Desktop (if using XP) or they could run VNC but block the ports at the firewall.

Actually OpenVPN has some multiple connection support with Dynamic IPs (I haven't tried it yet...)

[I know... I'm too well versed in open source junk]

BTW, OpenVPN provides a service so you can turn it on and off... but it comes up automatically

Ok 1 more thing... OpenVPN uses a certificate on both ends, so communication is encrypted (the users do become apart of your network while connected via OpenVPN... or at least networked to the machine they are VPN'd to), but this will get around some of the holes in VNC.

You can email me if you need some help (use my blog to do so)

You can use VNC for this sort of thing.

http://www.realvnc.com/

I was hoping to use Netmeeting as well for a school district network. The reason being is that most of the users are not computer savvy and a lot of the "Tech Staff" is converted Audio Visual department and they are not as computer savvy either. I was hoping to use Netmeeting and the Directory lookup, so the "Tech Staff" could just point and click and automatically connect to that users Desktop, since most staff members wouldn't understand how to use the Netmeeting manager to share out the desktop. Although, I have not been able to find a way for it to autoconnect directly to the desktop share. I can get it to auto connect to a meeting session, but not get the client machines to boot up in a meeting mode with the desktop share option already enabled. If anyone knows of a registry setting to set this up, or another way to do it, please let me know, otherwise I will have to install VNC on about 1000+ machines.

Did any1 see my initial comment? it directly answers the question that was asked, rather than sending him off on some chase to install more software... and FYI - if you're running WinXP and don't think that you have Netmeeting, just go to the "Run" box and type "conf" and it will configure Netmeeting on your machine.

Yeah we saw it Derrick, you just didn't answer his question. He asked "how do I enable it automatically for the user" and you said "tell the user to enable it."

VNC is a much better bet that remote desktop sharing NEway.

See how I saved myself typing out 4 whole characters. I'm following the Derrick Bailey method of timesaving. I just saved almost a whole second by NOT typing the word out completely and just substituting a phonetically similar character. yay me!

I wouldn't say it's better Scott, but VNC is certainly much easier to setup in a secure manner.

Hi,

Am new to NetMeeting. Trying to use it for teaching across the country with video. To learn how to use it, hooked up with a co teacher from our homes. We were unable to establish a connection. We each tried by putting our IP addresses in the Call window and calling. It would act like it was calling and then say the other didn't answer. We did it both ways. Then we tried with email addresses. That didn't work either.

Any ideas?

I have a couple 2000 pro machines at work. I'm connected to my work network via VPN, and I want to remotely configure netmeeting for desktop sharing, since remote desktop is not an option. Does anyone know how to remotely configure a 2000 pro machine for remote desktop? I can connect to the two computers' registries, but have no idea what to change, or if this is even possible. Any help is appreciated.

If netmeeting service is not started try
sc \\(machine name) start mnmsrvc
If this tells you that service already started then try,
sc \\(machine name) continue mnmsrvc
You can even check the status by following command
sc \\(machine name) query mnmsrvc
I hope this will be exact answer you are expecting.