Remote Desktop Sharing over LAN

I need to control a old computer of mine, which doesn't have a monitor attached (or a keyboard for that matter). It is, however, attached to the TV (for some strange reason, I can't get HD on the TV - it will only let me set it to 600*800 - so text on there is pretty blurry) because I watch downloaded movies on there occasionally. It's main purpose is, however, is acting as a file server. I need to find some way for my other two computers (which are all on the same LAN) to control it. The best way I had become up with was using the remote desktop sharing feature in MSN messenger. That, however, is a very "laggy" and seems to route the traffic to a 3rd party (thus, through the internet bottleneck). My question is: is there any other way to do this, so that the traffic between the two computer only goes through my home network? Sorry for the long post..
Thanks,

 

What OS ?

For XP Pro, the best is RDP. Or Remote Assist(that I believe is also on XP home and Vista Home).

Otherwise, VNC. much slower than RDP but usable on LAN.

 

Yes, I use XP Pro SP2

 

RDP then(I assume you mean you have XP Pro on that old machine).

I use it on a daily basis to the other part of the world(16 hours difference) through cable modem(both end) and don't feel like I am running from remote.

No games or video/audio playing though.

BTW, how can you control it to watch movie if you don't have input device attached ?

 

I have a media center remote I managed to get working

 

ah, in that case, there is a caveat.

With XP Pro, RDP would logout the current session at the console(TV). For normal PC, that is easy, just login again. Not sure how you would do that in your case.

There is a hack(patch) which enable multiple session, meaning you can RDP to it in the background yet still using it in the console(keep on watching movie).

However, this is not "control" in the sense that you are not communicating with the console session(but sharing the same machine). If you must do that, VNC or remote assist is your option. With remote assist much faster but needs to be initiated from that machine whereas VNC can be stuffed in the startup folder and load automatically.

For your case, VNC should be fine for remote control.