Posted to xp only, as aioe has forbiden crossposts to the others ...

John,

Do they _all_ require access to a remote server, *including for initial
setup of the connection*, or do any of them work entirely standalone?

*Ofcourse* there are versions that are fully stand-alone. :-) RealVNC
(payed, can do both) and TightVNC (free) are two of them.

The "problem" is that a direct (P2P) connection needs extra work, as you
have to configure the firewall to forward connections to a specific port of
the 'puter that wants to share its desktop. Having a(n initial connect)
server bypasses that (both 'puters connect outwards, and thru the server one
of them invites the other in).

Regards,
Rudy Wieser