remote desktop through BT Homehub 2.0

Do you have the firewall turned on on the machine you are trying to connect to?

nope, sorry - forgot to mention ALL firewalls are off. RDP would have made an exception in the windows one anyway wouldn't it?

check your port availability here:  http://www.canyouseeme.org

ok cheers i'll have to post back in a couple of hours, i'm at work at the moment. what can i do if 3389 isn't available?

Also...What version of windows are you trying to connect to the windows 7 box with?

win 7 pro x64 mostly, they are all various flavours of 7 x64 & x86 and also server 2008 both x64 & x86

If 3389 isnt availabe I would find out why.  Either ISP is blocking or you are locally << if they are its a bit strange that the ISP themselves created a remote desktop service on the hub and then blocked the port.

i'm pretty sure i'm not cos all internal firewalls are off

You may have done this but check computer/properties/remote settings  make sure connections are allowed.  Also make sure the service is started in services.

yep, checked it. the only thing that's changed is my ISP. googling the homehub RDP problem shows its pretty common but the forums kind of peter off into nothing so i don't know if it's been solved or not

yep, checked it. the only thing that's changed is my ISP<<<sorry, and router obviously

Concerning the firewall, yes it typically will unblock that once you enable RDP, but it is one of the first things you verify when you have connectivity issues...

Antivirus? Does this have a firewall?

well i tried that canyouseeme website last night and port 3389 is getting connection refused, so it looks like i'm going to have to try and talk the indian branch of BT (should really be called Indian Telecom - i've never spoke to anyone remotely British when i've had to deal with them) into opening the port for me.

I use Kaspersky AV, not Kaspersky IS so that doesn't include a firewall, but that's a moot point really, i disable all internal firewalls and just use the router

i'll let you know what BT say

sorry about the delay in getting back to you.

After calling BT again their broadband support has not even understood the question, answering with 'if you are outside your house you cannot connect to your home network'. frustration isn't the word!

once i told them it is possible and explained the whole concept of remote desktop they gave me another BT site address who want 8.99 a month for support services! i don't need the support and i don't really want to pay 8.99 just for an engineer to come through the back door of my home hub to flick a switch to enable RDP.

don't suppose anyone knows how to hack into the admin settings of a home hub 2.0? i know how to get into the "advanced" settings, but there must be some hidden admin settings somewhere blocking RDP and remote access to the hub itself. if anyone can tell me i'll hold myself responsible if i knacker it

BTW - remote desktop works on the internal network - my iphone can rdp into my pc without problems when both on my wireless

It looks like you can install the homehub software and make configuration changes.

http://www.frequencycast.co.uk/homehub.html

That article talked about how to log onto the device. Try that and see if you can open up the ports.

Copied this from there...

 
We thought that some of our  visitors might like a little more detail on what configuration options  are supported by the Home Hub, so we've had a stroll through the user  interface:  
You can connect to your Home Hub  to check status and alter settings via your PC's web browser - Go to http://bthomehub.home/.  Once you've logged  in to the  BT Home Hub, you need to go to the  'Advanced' section.  Here, you'll find the following sections:  
Configuration: Contains  the following: Wireless - Set up the  Hub's wireless settings : SSID , speed, channel, encryption (WEP,  WPA-PSK or WPA)
Telephony - BT  Broadband Talk settings
Internet - Info on  your Internet connectivity. This includes your username and password -  note that be default this is  "bthomehub@btbroadband.com" (with no  password) - these details aren't actually needed as authentication is  done using your phone number
IP Addresses - Here  you can enable/disable DHCP, define a DHCP pool, and set the Hub's IP  addresses and subnet mask.
Devices - Shows the  status of connected devices
Application sharing -  Allows you to assign port mappings (translation of incoming packets for a  port range, to a local port range). Home Hub  Port Forwarding help
Firewall - Allows you  to select levels of protection. Home Hub  security
Dynamic DNS - Allows  you to use a service such as DYNDNS so that machines outside your  network can get your IP address
 
System: Allows a reset,  restart, and the option to set the Home Hub to get the time  automatically (Enter up to 5 NTP servers). Also has the 'Remote  assistance' option, which allows BT's Support team to access your Hub.
Status: Info and access  to a access to a number of event logs, including a call log and  intrusion detection log

BT Home Hub Default Password         The default password for Home Hub V2 units is printed on a  sticker on the back of the Home Hub, labeled "Admin password"
             
           
On older v1.0 Home Hubs (for software before v6.2.6E), the  Home Hubs, the default password is either 'admin' (for software before  v6.2.6E)
             
           
On later versions of the BT Home Hub v1.x, the default  admin password is the unique Home Hub serial number (either on the  sticker on the back or underneath the hub after the 'S/N:' bit). The  password is case-sensitive - ignore the bit in brackets after the serial  number).

http://www.filesaveas.com/bthomehub_portforwarding.html

It looks like you can install the homehub software and make configuration changes. <<-- checked that as well, it's just the standard disc all ISP's hand out with their routers for network n00bs that don't know how to search and connect to a wireless network, and clutters up your system with stuff you don't need (rubbish antivirus trials etc)

yeah as i said i've already gone through those settings laughably called "advanced", changed them all to my access passwords so that's all been done and also:

BT have their own 'remote desktop' service in the applications settings part of the hub - forwarded it to my PC and definitely activated the service - doesn't let anything through.

then i created a custom RDP service forwarding port 3389 to my PC just in case they got the port number wrong on their configuration - still won't let me in.

My PC has a static IP to receive the above connections but that doesn't really matter anyway as it shows you in the last link you posted the hub detects the device connected by name rather than address.

i even turned the hub firewall off all day yesterday (with all internal firewalls already off so in theory as unsecure as a home network could possibly be) to test getting in while i was at work but it wouldn't get through. (from 7 pro x64 to 7 ultimate x64 so it's not the network level authentication RDP option)

pinging my dyndns address doesn't even give a return with the hub firewall off - it resolves the address so dyndns is working but the ping just times out

it does have a DMZ option but i'm just not rich enough to have a 2nd PC just for remoting in

the damn hub is so restricted i can't even change the local network address, even though it gives you the option to. i can change the number of addresses in the pool (ie 192.168.1.2 - 192.168.1.253 (the hub is .254 and i've set my PC's static address as .1)) but i can't change the local lease addresses - for security i had set my old one up as 10.10.10.x, turned dhcp off and give the PS3, iphone, etc etc all static addresses, tried giving the new hub the same address range to save me doing it to all devices again and the hub says 'invalid address'. i even tried changing it to 192.168.0.x just to test and it threw up invalid address.

i would just set my old router up with BT's connection settings but it's a 'G' rather than an 'N' (BT's) and standard video streaming from the PC to the PS3 is a bit glitchy through a 'G', whereas i can stream Bluray thru the 'N' without a hiccup. The PC, router and PS3 are all in different rooms so cabled connections is not an option.

most expensive broadband provider i know of as well and they've properly crippled it for people that have the slighest bit of tech savvy about them. would have gone for a cheaper one but just moved to a village where it's BT or tin cans connected by a piece of string

there must be a BT techie on here that can shed some light on the matter..... or even just let us know why there are options on the damn thing that are more like decorations for all the functionality they have.

i'm 99% certain jorlando66 is right in saying BT is blocking the port but why would they give you the option to allow it thru the firewall then block it? i suppose it's so they can charge you 8.99 to find out

Something you could try and test...

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;306759

yeah it did occur to me to change the listening port. i've sent an arsey email to BT to see if they'll do anything about it, if they don't come back with anything i'll give it a try.

thing is i did read somewhere BT blocks nearly all ports apart from email and http - do you know the consequences (if there are any) of what would happen if i told RDP to listen on port 80? or maybe port 110, as i don't use insecure pop so that wouldn't be in use

That would not be secure and you could run into other issues. They have to allow for other ports because they have gaming as a feature. Games vary in the ports that are used. I honestly think it is something else.

Have you tried telnetting into port 3389? If you have an xp machine, go to cmd. type telnet "EXTERNAL IPADDRESS" 3389.

If oyu get a blank screen with a blinking cursor it is open. If it says it is not connected, then you know something is blocking that.

no joy - tis blocked. have to see what the ISP says
telnet.jpg

Good idea. But now when you get someone with some wit about them, you can tell them that you confirmed that the port is being blocked. I always get tired of people blaming it on RDP and you do not have it setup correctly.

when you get someone with some wit about them <-- haha, i live in hope....

i'll post back as soon as i've heard anything

just for the fun of it, you could open a different port on the BT and telnet into that to verify that your changes actually do something.

yeah i've tried 80 and thats (obviously) open

i can't check if the firewall applications open up til i get home tonight cos i can't remote into the damn thing, so i'll post back tomorrow with the results

well i "opened" a couple of ports last night and couldn't telnet into either this morning, i tried ultraVNC as well and created a service pushing a non standard port through to my PC, obviously changing the listening port for VNC as well and still can't connect. so it looks like the same sort of thing as giving your baby a toy mobile phone so they don't screw your real one up

getting really narked with BT now as they haven't replied to my message, but i have received an email off them this morning saying 'you've downloaded 80Gb so far in July, download another 20Gb this month and we're restricting your speed to 1Mbps' - i'm on the unlimited package! so i can only download 10 HD films from either my BT vision box(!!) or my PS3 a month!

note to self: move when the contracts up so i haven't got to use these conning SoB's again

well, still no reply from BT.

i didn't want to use it but logmein works, although when i asked to install the free version it install the Pro 2 trial (?)

so thanks for the suggestions everyone, and my helpful hint for today - avoid BT like the plague

sorry lads, only a B grade as i didn't actually get my question answered, but the alternative will have to do

No worries. Good luck with BT>