# Solved: Teamviewer or Remote Desktop Connection?



## casefolder (Nov 13, 2008)

Hi guys,

my boss had the idea to work one day at home for special employees at our office.

I have good experiences with the program teamviewer and we would consider buying it since it's only freeware for private use.

In the office we are connected to a server pc and with some help (I'm a beginner in networking, my skills are more related to setting up hardware components) I would be able to establish a remote desktop connection offered by XP itself.

But is it worth it?

I heard that the connection isn't encrypted.

So better using teamviewer or something else?


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

From www.teamviewer.com



> *Security and privacy*
> 
> Security and privacy have always been our major concerns. Especially while working over the Internet you must ensure that all data runs through secure channels and your privacy is protected to the maximum level.





> Encryption
> 
> TeamViewer includes full encryption, based on RSA private-/public key exchange and AES (256 Bit) session encoding. This technology is based on the same standards as https/SSL and is considered completely safe by today's standards.
> 
> The key exchange also guarantees a full client-to-client data protection. This means that even our routing servers will not be able to read the data stream.


Sounds like it's encrypted to me.


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## casefolder (Nov 13, 2008)

Yes, yes, I know. I meant the Remote Desktop Connection. Is anyone of you using it actually? Or is it too unsafe and not worth to establish the connection with all the steps you have to go through (creating a terminal server and so on)

and what about vista? We have 3 Vista Business PC's running in our office. One of them is my Boss's pc. Does it work if he wants to connect from an XP PC to his Vista Office PC?

Thx for answers. thx


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

RDT should probably be used in conjunction with a VPN. As far as local network connections with RDT, encryption shouldn't be a major issue there.


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## claesbrandt (Dec 17, 2008)

Remote Desktop Connection can be setup to use encryption. However, I have used both too, and had the same considerations regarding security. My conclusion was, that opening incoming port 3389 on your home router for remote desktop, is less secure than having TeamViewer running, as TeamViewer uses outgoing port 80 and lets TeamViewer make the connection. To gain access to your computer, one would have to access the databases of TeamViewer, which is much less probable than just connecting to your home IP/domain. That said, Remote Desktop Connection is wider supported, for instance you can connect to your Windows Server from Linux using Remote Desktop.


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## defuse3388 (Oct 12, 2006)

You have to compromise on one thing to use the other thing. It all depends on the what you wish to do.


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## Pitbull_Raven (Dec 17, 2008)

Maybe it's a stupid idea, but what about using Hamachi to create the VPN and then RDP to establish the remote session? This way he'd have a secure encrypted VPN, ability to identify all PC's and related IP's on the Virtual Network and be able to use the XP built in RDP client.


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

Hamachi is another alternative that will work.


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