Edge Computing Division Users Forum

I'm running a fit2 as a music server; it was purchased diskless and I've installed a 500gb disk and XP Home. It's successfully on the network, running 24/7 for the past year, and is used only as a music server running Squeezebox Server (SBS).

So far I've been swapping out monitor, mouse and keyboard connections as necessary (the Fit2 is sitting on my desk next to my regular computer monitor). I don't have to do it often, only when some sort of maintenance on the SBS software is necessary. Still, this is a nuisance. I'd like to run it headless, networked to my existing primary computer. I've never done this before. Ideally, the solution will be free.

The free version of VNC seems obvious; if anyone has observations about its use, I'd like to hear them -- or suggestions for other software.

On my primary computer I'm running Vista Home but will be converting to Win7 in the fullness of time.

R.

I'd like to run it headless, networked to my existing primary computer.

I've been running a headless FitPC2 as a music server for well over a year now - see notes here:

http://www.cicsmemoryplayer.com/index.p ... P.Headless

OK, it's not SBS but the results are excellent. The only change from these notes (which need updating) is that I get better results in what is a slightly unusual scenario with UltraVNC. See:

http://www.uvnc.com/

Headless operation is reliable and setting it up is easy. The free versions of some VNC utilities are restricted to fixed IP addresses but this is not a problem in practice.

If you're interested, shout and I'll post a list of "known good" settings for UltraVNC.

HTH

Edit:
Sorry, I mistook SBS for Small Business Server. I think RDP sessions are some what crippled in XP Home. You can reactivate them with some tweaks, but I wouldn't recommend this. TightVNC or UltraVNC should do the trick.

Original Post:
The common remoting tools should all work: TightVNC, UltraVNC, TeamViewer etc. However, you could just use the build-in terminal server/remote assistance/remote desktop -- whatever they are calling it by now. It works fine for administration issues. A fully upgraded SBS03 should support TLS and NLS, SBS08 should be so by default.