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One of the nice features of the Windows 95 and 98 operating systems is the ability to manage and troubleshoot another user's computer from a remote location. In this article, we'll discuss the process of setting up Windows for remote administration. In the accompanying sidebar, we'll give you a brief overview of the remote administration tools and how to use them.
Setting up user-level access control
To take full advantage of Windows remote management capabilities, both your host PC and workstation must be running user-level access control. If your workstation is connected to a Windows NT server, chances are good that you're already set up for user-level security. (In this example, we'll assume that our Windows PC is connected to a Windows NT Server 4.0 machine.)
To verify your workstation's security level, double-click on the Network icon in the Control Panel and then select the Access Control tab in the Network dialog box. As you can see in Figure A, this tab tells you whether you're using share-level access control or user-level access control. (If the User-level Access Control option button is already selected, you're ready to move on to the next section.)
If you've selected the Share-level Access Control option button, you should think about how badly you want remote access capabilities, since switching from share-level to user-level access will destroy every share you've created on any machine you reconfigure. Should you decide to switch to user-level control, you first need to carefully document the access level and passwords for each shared folder on every workstation whose configuration you plan to change.
You should take note of any shared printers, fax modems, or other shared resources. It's also a good idea to back up the host PC's hard drive before you switch the access...