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Remote Desktop and VPN Tunneling

Hello everyone, I hope I can find some assistance. I hope I'm not confusing but here I go. My goal is to be able to use Remote Desktop using VPN tunneling to connect to my mothers computer and other family members who need assistance. I can currently connect to my mothers computer using the the Remote Desktop Web Connection but not with VPN. I have successly created a VPN server on my desktop (WinXP Pro) and VPN Client on her computer (WinXP Pro) using directions from the following website: http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=608. I can successfuly connect both computers using VPN but when I open up Remote Desktop I'm unable to get it to work through the VPN. I also went to this website: http://www.sbslinks.com/remotely_accessing_a_computer.htm and used there info to try to set it up but again was unsuccessful. I believe I have everything connected correctly (only thing different from the article is that I have a WORKGROUP and not a domain on my network). I'm guessing some of you will ask why I want a VPN and the reason is that I'm always security worried and want to take as many precautions as I can. Also, I'm trying to do this without have to spend any money. I'm also aware of Remote Assistance but often it is not convenient. To make this even more confusing, everything I've read says that you cannot use Remote Desktop without using VPN (or a VNC program) unless you use the Remote Web Connection that runs in Internet Explorer. Well, when I have the VPN "turned off" I can still use the Remote Desktop program "mstsc.exe" to connect to my mothers computer. Now I'm guessing it is using the web connection some how but I thought I would throw that point out there. Below I will give you a description of important things you might want to know about the network. Good luck, and I'm sure we will have some dialogue before this question can be answered.

My Network & Mothers network (both networks are in different locations)
Windows XP Pro SP2
1. Cable modem
2. Wireless Router Dlink DI-624 (ports 1723 and 3389 open with correct IP address)
3. Windows Firewall (with ports 1723 and 3389 open)

Last, I may just continue using the Web Connection method if someone can sway my opinion (I've read a lot on these boards and other sites and have never found a good answer)

Thanks,

gcsc_2002

SOLUTION

DrDamnit

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ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Rich Rumble

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gcsc_2002

ASKER

Thanks to both of you. After reading your post and doing my own research for the past 5 days I would have to agree a VPN Network with not be worth it. DrDamnit I noticed when connecting via VPN it gave new IP Addresses and I tried entering those IP Addresses into RDC but was still out of luck. I made sure all software firewalls were off, thus leaving only the Wireless Router. The wireless router obviously had the VPN port open and the RDC port open. When you connect via VPN does RDC tunnel through the VPN port? If that is the case I'm wondering if WinXP Pro is not allowing it because I read that in WinXP Pro when you run it as a VPN Server you can only have one connection at a time. Would using RDC through VPN count as 2?

Richrumble I took your advice and changed ports and it works great except if I'm wanting to use terminal services for Windows Mobile 2003 SE. Window Mobile does not allow me to add the colon and new port number, it says it is an invalid address. Also Richrumble you mentioned about chaning my Administrator name, could you leave me info on how to do that? I remember seeing a post on how to do it but I can't remember what topic it was in. Last, I was researching on the web yesterday and found a new website called logmein.com. It is very similar to GoToMyPC.com but has a free version. Both the the free and paid version have 128bit to 256bit encryption and have separate username and password logins than just the Windows login. The main difference between the 2 is that the free version does not allow any files transfers or print sharing (I'm not concerned about these 2 because I know there are other means of doing that and I will not be doing that that much anyway).

I will continue to watch this post for another few days and see if anymore useful info is posted. If not I will split points for both of you.

Thanks,

gc_2002

DrDamnit

>>>When you connect via VPN does RDC tunnel through the VPN port? If that is the case I'm wondering if WinXP Pro is not allowing it because I read that in >>>WinXP Pro when you run it as a VPN Server you can only have one connection at a time. Would using RDC through VPN count as 2?

That's a good question. RDP connects using its own service, port, and encryption and does not create a VPN within itself; however, XP Pro should not be counting that as two connections. I will check on this for you though...

Rich Rumble

No, rd/ts can be tunneled in addition to their own encryption. I've never messed with Win-Mob-2003_SE but in the NT and win2k TS clients you had to use a special file to set the port to another port- you can find instructions here
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;q187623#XSLTH3126121123120121120120
THis might be the same for Windows Mobile 2003 SE

Using RD/TS is probably better, as you have a simple copy/paste, and a reliable program already, in my opinion.
-rich

gcsc_2002

ASKER

Thanks for your post. As I mentioned in my earlier post I have setup RD via logmein.com. This is a great site since it lets you do all of this for free except if you want to transfer files (which I don't do very often anyway) and it works behind any firewall. I'm still using Microsoft RD at home and to connect to my mothers computer since it is faster. Last, I would still like to a post on how to change the name of "Administrator" as richrumble stated before.

Thanks,

gcsc_2002

Rich Rumble

Right-click My Computer, select "Manage"
Open user's and groups, go to users, highlight, and then right-click the Administrator account, select Rename, that's it. takes effect immediatly.
-rich

okacs

Doesn't renaming the account in this way only change the user name appearance and NOT the profile name? (ie: the folder under "c:\documents & settings\<profilename>" will not change...)

Thanks.

dc_

okacs: Renaming the account that way really does change the name AND the profile name. The folder you referenced is just that - a folder. The profile points to it and is stored there. If it makes you feel better, you can change that too as long as the profile is not loaded and you update the related registry setting as well.