using computer name with Remote desktop

Question

Hey there, I'm trying to remote control a computer in my home network (workgroup).

I don't have an internal DNS server.

I want to use the computer name instead of having to type the IP of the computer in every time I want to control it.

Is this possible without a DNS?

Answer 1

You can either edit your hosts file under C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc if the IP of the computer is static:

169.123.123.1 MyOtherComputer

and you can access the computer via //MyOtherComputer then. You also might want to look into NetBIOS over TCP/IP which gives you the ability to have speaking names on a network without a DNS server.

Answer 2

You can edit your hosts file in %windir%\system32\drivers\etc - enter a line in the host file like this:

192.168.1.42 targetpcname

where 192.168.1.42 is the IP of the remote computer you're trying to control and targetpcname is the name of that computer.