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Remote Desktop Connection Through A Router

Hi There

I have a cable modem that connects to a router. I have a couple of pc's and a laptop connected to the router to share the internet connection. Is it possible for me to remote desktop to my laptop from work? Which IP address would I use, the laptop's or the router's? I'm assuming the router's....but then what?

Thanks!

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Pete Long

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InteraX

Hi iankb,

You would need to setp port forwarding on the router.
Remote desktop uses specific ports on an IP address. You need to tell the router that the ports on the external side of the router are to be mapped to the IP address of the PC you want to access on the inside.

Quote from Set Up Remote Desktop Web Connection with Windows XP
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/networking/expert/northrup_03may16.mspx

Configure Your Router
If you use a router to connect to the Internet, you probably need to configure it to allow the Remote Desktop connection to your computer. For more information on routers and firewalls, see my Internet Firewalls column. You need to forward two ports to your Windows XP Professional-based computer: TCP port 3389, which Remote Desktop requires, and the port you specified in the TCP Port field in Internet Information Services (or TCP port 80 if you did not change the default). If you use Internet Connection Firewall (and you should!), see How to Manually Open Ports in Internet Connection Firewall in Windows XP for instructions on allowing traffic by TCP port.

Good luck.
;-)

iankb

ASKER

Great stuff! I'll try this out next week, thanks!

Pete Long

iankb

ASKER

Hmmm, I still a little stuck with this. I have a mentor adsl mr4 router. Do I need to configure the port forwarding through the NAT - special application, or NAT - virtual server? I also have Sygate Firewall, the free version....do I need to add my work IP address somewhere there, and if so where??

iankb

ASKER

Another thing, do I really need Sygate anyway as the router has a built in firewall?

Pete Long

>>Sygate anyway as the router has a built in firewall?

so has mine but I still put Zone ALarm on all y machines

Im unfamilliar with our router, but would doubt prot forwarding is set up in the NAT section :(

moranassoc

Question:

How do you determine the interanl ip address? We have 4 stations in our office. I would like to be able to access each using remote desktop. I have been able to access only one since port 3389 is forwarding to IP address 192.68.1.1.13.

Not sure where the number 13 came from and not sure how to determine each station's IP address.

Please advise.

InteraX

You can determine each PC's IP by logging into each pc and typing ipconfig /all
However, you may notice that, if you are using DHCP, the Ip's on each client may change. Please ensure that you are not assigning the IP's via DHCP.

InteraX

Once you have the IP address for each PC, you can then map different ports to different clients. eg port 3385 can map to IP192.68.1.12 port 3389.

To connect to the non-standard ports , you can type in the following as the IP address <IPaddress>:<PortNumber>

eg. 68.55.32.99:3385

Pete Long

ThanQ