RDC for mac on the VPN, woah!

Did that make any sense? Well, I'm really really really proud of myself.

A few days ago I learned that the folks at Windows had made a Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) client for us mac folks. Don't know what RDC is? Basically, it's a neat program that lets you connect to another computer and use it as if you were sitting in front of it, all of your files, programs, etc. are accessible just like normal. So, just like it sounds, RDC. Anyway, connecting to this with a mac has been a bit problematic, there are a few freebie programs that do it, but usually the graphics are fuzzy/pixelated or they are just super slow and laggy. I didn't have time to mess with it when I found out about it, but today I finally had the time, whee!

I installed RDC and was attempting to connect to my computer at work. I had gotten the IP address and knew I needed to log in to a specific network to validate myself. However, I kept getting errors. Then it donned on me, since I'm not on campus there are extra security measures to go through. I was able to locate the Virtual Private Network (VPN) info on the OSU website, install the appropriate version for mac, look through the config instructions and set it up properly. After this, RDC for mac connected just fine.

The only real tricky part with this was trying to get the display settings set up in a friendly way. After trying to match resolution types, I finally noticed at the bottom of the list in RDC (Full Screen) ... DUH. Now RDC displays my work desktop beautifully! This means I can check my work e-mail from home using Outlook 2003 on our Microsoft Exchange server, aka happy meeting requests approval/denial and calendaring central. Previously, I would have to connect to the Outlook web interface which blows CHUNKS. It doesn't even have a message search function. This means scrolling through the over 2000 messages in my inbox, manually. Eww.

It's so sad how happy this makes me. Uber geek? Maybe. This might be the first time I've ever said this, but... Thank You, Microsoft! 2 kudos!