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2 computers accessing eachother

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Robert C, User (Posts: 3)
Sep 03, 2020 11:41:52 am EDT
Support level: Free or trial
Im wanting to have the ability to access my home pc from my laptop and access my laptop from my home pc. I currently have the Viewer on the home pc and the host on the laptop which allows me to access the laptop from the home pc.  To access the home pc from the laptop do I need to have host and viewer on both computers or can i do it with the viewer on both computers?  How does this work if I want to throw a 3rd computer in the mix as well like the PC at my mom's house which i would only need a host on I guess since I wouldn't need to access my PC's from her house but if i did want to access my pc how would this work.

Thank you for any help
Pauline, Support (Posts: 2886)
Sep 03, 2020 3:35:06 pm EDT
Hello Robert,

Thank you for your message.

To access the home pc from the laptop do I need to have host and viewer on both computers or can i do it with the viewer on both computers?

In order to access your home PC from the laptop, you need to install Host on your home PC and Viewer - on your laptop. The Viewer is installed on the computer you use to connect to remote machines and the Host is installed on the remote machine itself. Here's a Quick Start Guide that provides some basics on the program and might be helpful to establish a remote connection.

Alternatively, you can also use Portable Viewer that doesn't require installation and is suitable to use if you need to work from multiple computers.

How does this work if I want to throw a 3rd computer in the mix as well like the PC at my mom's house which i would only need a host on I guess since I wouldn't need to access my PC's from her house but if i did want to access my pc how would this work.

In case if you only need to have remote access to this 3rd remote machine, then you only need to install Host or, alternatively, run Agent on this remote machine. However, if you want to access any other computer from this 3rd machine, you have to use Viewer, as the Host module only provides access to the remote machine and cannot be used as an alternative for the Viewer module.

Hope that helps.
Robert C, User (Posts: 3)
Sep 03, 2020 3:41:23 pm EDT
Support level: Free or trial
So are you saying I need both host and viewer on my home PC and both programs on my laptop in order to use one to remote the other?
Or are you saying I only need viewer on both and not to install host on either?
Pauline, Support (Posts: 2886)
Sep 03, 2020 5:39:56 pm EDT
Hello Robert,

So are you saying I need both host and viewer on my home PC and both programs on my laptop in order to use one to remote the other?

Yes, this is correct. In order to connect from your home PC to your laptop and vise versa, you need to install both Host and Viewer on both machines as they work as separate stand-alone modules and are not alternatives for each other. For more information please feel free to refer to this Quick Start Guide: https://www.remoteutilities.com/support/docs/quick-start-guide/

Hope that helps.
Robert C, User (Posts: 3)
Sep 04, 2020 8:34:30 am EDT
Support level: Free or trial
Yes that helps. I understand the setup process and I have installed both viewer and host on both computers.  Is there a way that I can have 1 account for both vewers so I can have saved computers without having to add them more than once?
Pauline, Support (Posts: 2886)
Sep 04, 2020 11:48:50 am EDT
Hello Robert,

I'm glad to hear we were able to help!

Unfortunately, there's no centralized account for Remote Utilities that would store your information, i.e. your address books and settings are stored locally on the viewer machine. However, if you use Viewer on a few different machines, please consider using Portable Viewer instead. Portable Viewer can be stored on a USB disk, so this way you can take it with you anywhere. For more information on the Portable Viewer please see this page: https://www.remoteutilities.com/support/docs/portable-viewer/

Alternatively, you can also set up the address books to sync automatically through a shared resource, such as a Dropbox or OneDrive folder, so it would be available for each of your Viewers. Here's a guide on how to set up the automatic sync through an online folder: https://www.remoteutilities.com/support/docs/sharing-via-dropbox/

Hope that helps.

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