InfraRed Posted September 16, 2003 Share Posted September 16, 2003 Hi I am trying to setup a scenario where I work remotely from the office doing 3D. It seems to me that there are two possible options to achieve this; 1. Have a powerful machine at the destination and email work appropriately or 2. Work on a laptop and use the grunt of the main computer at work via a program like PC Anywhere and broadband. Has anyone successfully worked remotely? What system did you use/recommend? Thanks for your time, N Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbr Posted September 16, 2003 Share Posted September 16, 2003 I haven't, but I would like to learn more about it. I know a friend who is a system administrator at UCLA that uses PC Anywhere to work from home on off hours and weekends - it sounds great. If there is anymore information about this, I'd like to learn about it, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plastic Posted September 16, 2003 Share Posted September 16, 2003 "2. Work on a laptop and use the grunt of the main computer at work via a program like PC Anywhere and broadband." thats not possible. even on a 100mbit network remote desktop is pretty slow. it works for admin stuff but not with graphical content, in realtime. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigcahunak Posted September 16, 2003 Share Posted September 16, 2003 I did #2 in the past - I meen not working remotely on the file itself, but changing a few things, queing renders, logging in to check on progress... that kind of stuff. You can have a laptop configured with the same programs and plugins like your main server - that way you can also send files over for render while you are away and easily render them. The setup was (3 yrs ago): In lab - 4x1ghz athlons W2K pro, plus one 800mhz athlon with W2K srv plus and static IP addy. The latter was configured as terminal server with plus ftpserver and a web style login page to the terminal server (so I could actually login from any machine worldwide; not only a laptop). All 5 local machines were networked for local and remote network rendering. All I had to do is remember the IP, but if you are more serious about it you can even set a domain, or have it linked from your website with user/pass. It worked great. Hardware requrements, I'd say, arent too high at all, unless ppl are going to be working on that machine locally as well, or too many people remotly working on it. I even remember that once there were 2 of us working remotely, and one guy working localy ad it survived... Needless to say - U need to know what your doing... and keep maintaining it all the time. Hope it helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moshenko Posted September 16, 2003 Share Posted September 16, 2003 I work remotely all the time. The way I accomplish it is by the following: 1. FTP server in office. All work files can be accessed through secure (encrypted) FTP. Our FTP server is addressed via dynamic DNS services, so we don't need a static IP with our service provider. For exceptionally large files, I plan ahead and burn to CD to bring home; 2. Remote Network Rendering. Using port forwarding on our router and firewall, and IPsec settings on workstations, I can perform network rendering jobs remotely on our office farm (using Viz). It's insanely fun to be sitting in my living room while a huge render job is being done at my office and sent back to me when ready! 3. License Management. We could implement a floating license server at work and I could access that license from home via VPN, but it's too expensive. So I use the Portable License Utility in Viz to get a license home to work on. That's about it, really. All of my office resources are available to me remotely, so it really only comes down to a bit of planning with respect to large files and licenses. Good luck - Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InfraRed Posted September 16, 2003 Author Share Posted September 16, 2003 Thanks for your replies ! It seems that there are quite a few things to do before it works ! Did anyone use a program like PC Anywhere? Or were the computers controlled by other means? Regards N Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbr Posted September 16, 2003 Share Posted September 16, 2003 I am curious how long someone (or if it's advisable) it would take a newbie to figure all this out, on the most basic level. I am basically interested in controlling 2-4 computers from a laptop, mostly just to send the render. It's way down the road, but if there are tons of things to learn, I would like to start. It really seems great! Ah, a vacation on the beach, tapping away on my laptop! Yeah, that's the life! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtutaj Posted September 16, 2003 Share Posted September 16, 2003 I use tightvnc. A lot less overhead then PcAnywhere. and its free.. They are working on a file transfer utility.. www.tightvnc.com I have it installed on all the systems on the rendering farm so I can check them from any system that I am on.. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plastic Posted September 16, 2003 Share Posted September 16, 2003 windows xp comes with a very good remote utility. it's dead easy, just enter the target ip and connect... no additional software needed. if the target computer is behind a firewall you also have to open port 3389 there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
animart Posted September 16, 2003 Share Posted September 16, 2003 YES WE CAN DO THAT!! Serch for a program called CITRIX METAFRAME, 2 years ago i use 3dmax2 in a 286 machine whit 16 mb in ram, do you remember those old machines? well all works remotly the machine only work as a interface, all the work and proces is made by the Workstation or server remotly, and yes you can render a 1 million poligon scene whit GI enable and raytrace in minutes whit a verry old machine. a and one thing wonderfull since the aplication run on server you can run 3dmax on many machines whit only one license. like you do if in your workstation open 2 or 3 sametime 3dmax. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigcahunak Posted September 16, 2003 Share Posted September 16, 2003 Originally posted by plastic: windows xp comes with a very good remote utility. it's dead easy, just enter the target ip and connect... no additional software needed. if the target computer is behind a firewall you also have to open port 3389 there. You are right. Its cool and easy. Only problem is that you can only be loged in once, so when you login remotly you kick out the local loged in user. This is why we used terminal server, which allows multi users to be loged at the same time. You can even be loged local and remote with the same user account and work without interopting one another. However, if its for home usage and you know that there is no one working on the machine localy then you have no probs. The XP is great for being the one you login from, if I'm not mistaking it will even let you drag and drop - but not sure on that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigcahunak Posted September 16, 2003 Share Posted September 16, 2003 Originally posted by InfraRed: Thanks for your replies ! It seems that there are quite a few things to do before it works ! Did anyone use a program like PC Anywhere? Or were the computers controlled by other means? Regards N nope. Today it is mostly built into windows already. XP pro has it (as mentioned by plastic) and all server versions of windows OSs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plastic Posted September 16, 2003 Share Posted September 16, 2003 bigcahunak, FYI, windows server 2003 allows multiple incoming remote connections, and the active user won't be kicked out. i also read somewhere that the next sevice pack for windows xp will include this functionality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigcahunak Posted September 16, 2003 Share Posted September 16, 2003 Hi Plastic Yes I knew that about the server version (it is a server after all...) I was talking about XP pro, which is still great for a single user, or even a machine that only you access it remote or local. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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