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• Client The computer you will use to form your connection with the server. It
could be a PC at home, a road warrior’s laptop, or even a coworker’s PC in a
neighboring cubicle.

Using Remote Desktop
Before you can use Remote Desktop, it’s necessary to prepare your server and client
computers. It’s also a really good idea to test your connection to make sure everything is
working the way you want it to. After all, once you’re away from the server, the computer
cannot be accessed to perform any tweaks or fine-tuning.

Remote Desktop Server
When configuring a Remote Desktop server, you will be indicating which user accounts will
be authorized access. These user accounts must have passwords. If the computer the client
will be accessing does not normally utilize a password, you will have to create one for
Remote Desktop.
When you configure your server for Remote Desktop, you enter the user account name
when Windows Vista asks for the object name in the Select Users dialog box. To configure a
Remote Desktop server, follow these steps:
1. Select Start | Control Panel | System And Maintenance.
2. Click the Allow remote access icon from the System portion of the dialog box. PART III
3. In the Remote Desktop portion of the dialog box are two selections you can make,
based on your connection and security needs (see Figure 8-5):
• Allow connections from computers running any version of Remote Desktop
(less secure)
• Allow connections only from computers running Remote Desktop with Network
Level Authentication (more secure).
Network Level Authentication (NLA) is a new form of authentication that
completes user authentication before a remote connection is made. This is a more
secure method of authentication and can protect the remote computer from attacks
and malware.
The best choice is to select the second radio button, allowing connections only
with NLA-enabled computers. However, if your connecting computers don’t
have NLA, or you just don’t know whether they do, you should select the first
radio button.

NOTE How do you know if your computer is using NLA? Open the Remote Desktop Connection
tool, click the small icon at the top-left corner of the dialog box, and then click About. We’ll
explain how to open the Remote Desktop Connection tool in the next section.
4. Click the Select Users button. This calls up the Remote Desktop Users dialog box in
which you will add users who will be allowed to remotely access this computer.
Administrative accounts are automatically given access.
5. Click Add. This calls up the Select Users dialog box, as shown in Figure 8-6. User
accounts have three identifying components: object type, location, and name.