There was a meeting today but I wasn’t able to get to my office before meeting starts, and so I decided to connect to my remote computer from home to attend the meeting. Soon I realized that I chained four computers by “remote desktop”-ing from one to another. Here are the details:

Notation:

• Computer A - Laptop at Home
• Computer B - Desktop at Home
• Computer C - Desktop at Office
• Computer D - Laptop at Office

Facts:

• I didn’t bring D home last night
• My home phone is far away from B
• VPN is installed on B, but NOT on C

Limitations:

• To connect to C remotely, I must have VPN client installed
• To connect to D using remote desktop, I must be from intranet
• The meeting requires D and any phone

Solution:

1. 1. I dialed VPN from B connect to C. But I realize that I cannot reach the phone from B;
2. 2. So I turned on A positioned close to the phone, and connect to B with Remote Desktop. Next I found I actually need to connect to the meeting server from D;
3. 3. From A, in the Remote Desktop window connected to B, I tried to open another Remote Desktop connection to D. But D only accepts request from intranet and thus B’s request is rejected;
4. 4. From A, in the Window showing B, I connected to C using Remote Desktop;
5. 5. From the Remote Desktop Window just opened on C, connect to D using the third Remote Desktop.
6. 6. To make it worse, we actually used net meeting for screen sharing and so I was connected to another Desktop from D.