Remote Desktop

[freddy 0]

Hi all,

 

I connect to my work computer from home using Remote Desktop. At work I have a Router that redirects port 3389 to my work computer's IP. It all works fine.

 

But now someone else at work wants to do Remote Desktop to his work machine from his home.

 

Is there anyway to do this?

 

FREDDY

[spacey 0]

yes, if you have port forwarding ability on your router.

 

all you need do to is setup another port forward entry on the router, for example forward 4000 -> yourfriendsworkip:3389

 

then when your friend is at home, they can connect to the ip of the office at work, port 4000, and it will redirect specifically to his machine with the remote desktop port 3389.

 

comprende?

[clutch 1]

First, that wouldn't just be port forwarding (which you are already doing for your existing computer) but port switching/conversion which very, very few NAT systems will do. In addition, the remote desktop client in Windows XP only works with port 3389, so it would never go to port 4000 anyway. However, there might be another way to do this. You can first, get the client for Windows 9x, NT, 2K that will permit port changing. Now, this Client Connection Manager that is being referred to was part of a package that is no longer available from MS. However, I have a copy of the older client here:

 

www.driventechnologies.com/otherfiles/tsmsisetup.zip

 

Just extract that, and run the exe. Then, go to the path that the exe extracted the installer to and run it from there (by default, it's C:\Program Files\Terminal Services Client MSI). Once you have it installed, you can use those directions. Now, you can host TS/Remote Desktop on any port you want, and connect to it. The next link is for the current client that's in use if anybody wants the newest one (but I can't find a way to change the port in the RDP file):

 

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/detai...;displaylang=en

 

Next, configure the host and client to use the new port number. Directions for doing that are here:

 

http://support.microsoft.com/default.asp...;NoWebContent=1

 

In addition, you can modify the port that the web client connects to (the one that usually sits on /TSWEB when installed on an IIS box) by following these directions:

 

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;326945

 

Once this is complete, just make sure to forward the new port from your NAT setup to the client. I have hosted 4 separate TS/RDP connections through my Linksys at home in this fashion with no issues.

 

HTH

[franzj 0]

To instruct the Remote Desktop client to use a different port you just have to append the port # like in IE. For example if the computer you're connecting to is "microsoft.com", then you would enter "microsoft.com:4000" to change to port 4000. Thus "microsoft.com:3389" is the same as "microsoft.com".

 

To instruct the Remote Desktop server (the machine you're connecting to) use the following article: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb%3ben-us%3bQ306759.

 

Now that you have the proper tools (i.e. our suggestions) good luck using them in the right combination. One possible scenario might be to change port on the Remote Desktop server, then make sure that your gateway allows data over the new port (e.g. port 4000).

[clutch 1]

The port listing in the address is nice, as the older client never allowed that and the how-to was never amended by MS for their updated client. Spiffy.

[freddy 0]

Thanks for your help, I like the simplicity of your solution Franz I will give it a try!

 

FREDDY

[spacey 0]

ya, it works great for me. i setup port 8080 on my router to forward to 3389 on my machine.

 

so at work i connect to my ip at home on port 8080 and it automatically goes to 3389 of one of my computers at home.

 

using a router is much easier because then you don't have to mess around with what port your computer is listening on. as far as each computer on your lan is concerned, it is listening on 3389 and you just need to setup your router to forward a port of your choice to each machine.

 

remote desktop is probably one of my favourite features of xp.