Remote desktop with out networking?

I don't know if this is the right subforum, so I apologize if it should be somewhere else. I have a Samsung ativ tab 7 hybrid that I carry with me everywhere for college, and I like how portable it is, but I wouldn't mind having a larger screen (or two), full size key board, mouse, ect. I usually have access to a variety of desktops around the school (and the ones in the engineering computer labs have dual screens). However, I need access to a variety of software and files that are on my laptop. Is there anything I can do to connect between my laptop and the school computer and use remote desktop or something similar to run my laptop with the desktop monitors, keyboard, and mouse? I can't add my laptop onto the school network, and I don't have administrator rights on the school computers. Is there any chance I can use a USB connection or some sort of online access?

 

Yes, there is some good software for this both for Android and iPhone, and at the end of this post I'm going to share one of my favorite solutions for VNC for any laptop, desktop, and mobile device that requires no network except for a virtual lan address (192.168.x.x) or a serial port.

One of your options if you do have internet or some kind of network access through port 80 is a universal service called Mobizen, which can even work with ad-hoc networks and over wi-fi. Although many android devices require you to root your phone to be able to do something like this, Mobizen is one of the few I've found that can often use stock phones without any changes or modifications to the firmware to automatically let you connect and remote control it from a bigger screen on a laptop or desktop whenever you need to.

There are others that do not require any specific online service that are both paid and free solutions. I've used one of them before which cloned all the features of being remotely connected to the device over a laptop through a tethered usb cable but without turning on the screen to do so, and another that basically just let me add it as a mapped device on the network, use its internet connectivity like a hot spot but direct like it were passing to the MAC address of the laptop itself, and a few other neat ones.

I'm trying to recall what it was called. One of them I think was a program called Tablet Remote, and another was RemoteLink on the Google Play Store.

There are a lot of different versions of VNC for traditional and mobile devices now, so you'll be able to pick the best from the competition now that may even be better than the ones I was checking out and using for this with android back in 2012-2014.

There are some for Apple that work well too, although they may be slightly more useful to you if using Apple devices (but should still be universal nonetheless).

For over 20 years, I've used AT&T's VNC (Virtual Networking Computing) and the C source code to it to tailor anything that I needed with remote networking on the fly between any systems connected over serial, wireless, or a LAN only with no internet access needed. As long as they're connected to a router or another ethernet card with a twisted pair, you can create a system-to-system network ovr ethernet or a serial port (whichever is best for you) and be able to remotely control and connect to either one.

The best version of this to use today that is 100% free for you is TightVNC

TightVNC has many more options than before, and can be scaled and adapted, but it's already a complete solution with over 90% of the features you find being sold and made available through online-based services like Teamviewer and LogMeIn. You can use it over the internet too, but would have to configure things on both sides with the routers to connect, whereas with the internet-based services, they charge what they do because they maintain a universal connectivity for you without having to configure anything or modify router settings.

On a local network, you shouldn't have to modify anything to connect.

If you want to connect to your android or apple device with VNC, then you'd have to obtain an APK or iOS program that assigns a virtual IP address to your mobile device and then make it available either via bluetooth or as an ad-hoc or wi-fi hotspot.

Once you do this, if you tether the device through a USB cable or connect to it over a wi-fi connection, you'll have a virtual IP address for the device like 10.0.x.x, 192.168.x.x, etc. Your mobile device basically becomes the same as a mobile router and a mobile device on the network all in one at that point, and as long as the VNC server is running on the mobile device, you can use TightVNC or any other VNC client that is compatible with it to connect and interact with it as if it were a PC or laptop on a local area network.

 

My hybrid tablet is running windows 10, not android.

 

Ok, if you're running Windows 10 and can read and run intel binaries, then you'll have an easier time of it. As long as the device is able to execute it you'll be able to, even if it has to emulate it over ARM it may still work. If not, see if this VNC Server implementation designed for Windows Mobile does what you need for it to run the mobile device as a server you can connect to.

It's more requested for it to be done on android or apple devices so I usually assume that first. There's more solutions for that than Windows Phone which is a smaller market, but there is at least one or more ways to do it with those devices.

You might even be able to use a small emulator with a tiny linux kernel that runs in a box and has full access to your resources, create a virtual gateway between it and your windows phone, and then use something like x11vnc server or tigervnc (port of tightvnc) in the virtual machine on windows phone to connect to it remotely.

The link above works on Windows CE and other Windows mobile implementations, but I'm not sure how it will fare over Windows 10 yet since I don't have a Win10 mobile phone or emulator yet to test it out and see.

 

It's not a phone, it's a laptop/ hybrid tablet running full windows 10

 

Ok. Some of the "laptops" are rather deceiving...because they are nothing more than android or ARM-based devices with an attached touchscreen or standard screen to make them appear as if they were laptops and the technology from years ago built around traditional laptop architectures, even though they are now built around mobile and embedded arch instead. When people say "windows phone" or "windows mobile", the technology (and form factor of being a mobile phone or tablet instead of a laptop) is usually the first thing that comes to mind. Be sure to watch out for those curve-balls when they throw them in hardware or description.

If your system is Windows 10 and is intel-based and able to run any exe or standard 32 or 64 bit binary for Windows, then you will be able to use the TightVNC program I mentioned earlier. If it isn't, then you may need to use an ARM port of it, RealVNC port to ARM, or another remote networking program over LAN or serial connection to do it.

There are even some commercial and proprietary ways of doing this to where you can just use a usb to usb transfer cable and software to establish a link that way. It makes it easier for people to connect two systems over serial (in addition to instant file sharing if needed) to where you can use the same VNC network without having to have or configure the connection for it as much. I would still recommend the traditional VNC approach, but the usb to usb serial method is another way you can go about it to create a one-to-one connection for remote sessions and file transfers depending on the model and features of it.

(If you have a twisted pair CAT5-based cable laying around and know how to do static routing you can use that to do direct one-to-one connections, too. Here again though, it's better for people using anything like Windows 10 to go about VNC and more traditional methods first)