Accessing home pc from a remote pc behind a firewall?

[crazy888s]

I want to be able to access my home pc from a remote location that has a firewall on it. My home configuration has a cable modem going into a router, then that splits my connection to clients. I'm trying to access one of my XP machines from an remote XP machine that is behind a firewall.

I've tried setting up the XP Remote Desktop Sharing (with and without IIS) and Netmeeting to get access to my PC. I can get both of these to work perfectly if the remote machine is on an internet connection that doesnt have an firewall....like a simple dial-up connection over a phone line. But when I try to access through a firewall (one of which i cannot modify security or ports), it wont let me access my PC. So this makes me certain that the firewall securing the remote machine is not letting me connect.

What I need is a way to get through this firewall and into my home computer.

I thought the XP remote desktop connection software using IIS would work because it uses port 80 (doesnt it?...I mean since you use a web browser to connect and control). So i thought any computer that has web access on port 80 would be able to access my home pc. But for some reason, that wont work when I'm behind a firewall (and i've tried 2 different computers behind 2 completely different firewalls to try to connect to my home PC). I know if you dont use IIS, XP's Remote Desktop Connection software uses port 3389...which I figured wouldnt work through the firewall and doesnt.

So what can i do to get through this firewall and access my home pc? Do i need different software or need to set up the software I've tried some special way? Remember, my setups work when I'm not remotely behind a firewall, but dont work when I am. Thanks very much!

 

[santanudas]

Hi'

Though I’m not a Windows expert but when you using a hardware firewall (since your setup is ‘cable modem going into a router’) that normally blocks all the ports for incoming connections. So if you want to use some thing which uses port 80 (or any other ports) you have to do a ‘port forwarding’ commonly known as ‘Address Translation’ first. Consult your router’s user manual and you have to have an entry in your router’s NAT table for that (or every) particular port which you want to access from out side. For outgoing connection it’s normally doesn’t matter if that’s not an intention.

If you already have done this then no immediate answer other wise hope this will help.

Good luck!!!

 

[smah]

Essentially, these are the same instructions as your other posts. The settings now apply to your router instead of your firewall. Set the router to forward port 3389 to the IP address of the machine that you're trying to control. Make sure there is no firewall on that machine. Use the RD client software and you won't need IIS or port 80.

 

[crazy888s]

no...haha...i was afraid this would be confusing. I have a remote PC that i'm using to access my home pc. My home PC is going from a cable modem into a router, ports 3389 and 80 are forwarded to my XP machine. The remote PC that I am using to access this XP machine though is behind a firewall. So the route the a packet has to travel is from my remote machine, through the remote firewall, into the WWW, to my home router, then to my XP machine. The remote firewall is what I am having trouble getting through. It has nothing to do with how my router is set up at home because i am sure that works....when I use a dial-up connection on the remote pc (not the home one, that stays on the cable modem behind the router), it works. So the only difference is that on a remote dial-up, there is no firewall for me to go through. On the other connection, i have to go through that firewall before reaching the WWW, the before reaching my house. But I think I have found an alternate solution using a program called htthost....thanks though!