I ask because I'm trying to save trips to my dad's house to straighten up his computer.  I have a cable modem and he has dial up.  I've never used a program like this and I have concerns about security and functionality.

they work but Ras admin is better IMHO.  IM me for more info.

Wolf

I use both here at work.

I administer 500 PCs and almost 50 servers from here.

VNC works well for me.

YMMV

Security-wise, for one time deals, it should be fine.

If he's on dialup however, it'll be slower than molassas flowing uphill in January.

If your dad is on XP, use the remote desktop thingie. It'll still be dog slow but it'll work better, and it'll be more secure.

We use tightvnc on a bunch of boxes here, servers and workstations. Even across a 100mb full duplex network link to a box 2 switches away on the other side of the floor, it's laggy. Seriously, if you can, use remote desktop instead if he has XP. If he doesn't have XP...you're pretty much SOL.

I've used RealVNC at home and work and it works quite well for most everything. For  working w/friends and family, RealVNC had an issue or two connecting when various routers and firewalls were in place.  Sometimes I was able to get everything set up to get through, but I finally went the pay-route to PCAnywhere which appears to be friendlier with routers and firewalls.  

On the plus side, it really frees up the schedule and driving time and I see the family more.  On the down side, I don't  see my friends as much.

I have used both, they are just different 'versions' of VNC. You can reduce network lag by setting the 'display' to 8-bits. I have also used remote desktop and pcAnywhere. All have pluses and minusses. Don't set the winvnc(on his PC) service to run automatically, make him start it to allow you to connect. It has a password, but we have a script that can retrieve the password, our users sometimes change them. If low bandwidth overhead is an issue, use VNC, if not, use Remote Desktop/pcAnywhere.

My 2¢


ByteTheBullet  (-:

I would remotely administer his machine using the RDP client(if he has XP).  The redraws are way better than VNC.

Edited to add: This is different that the Remote Control Assistant which has horrible redraws like PC Anywhere.

Only one problem with VNC - it is not encrypted.  The initial password auth is, but the remaining session is not.  Make sure you use it over either a VPN or through dial-up.


BTW, XP Professional has Remote Desktop - Home does not.