Question about Remote Desktop

[9iron]

Is XP's remote desktop app only good for one machine behind a router? I'm able to connect into my work machine from home (once I opened up port 3389), but I had to enter my work router's public addy in the "Computer" line on my home machine. This worked fine, but what if I want someone else to be able to access their machine, too?

Or should I just purchase RAdmin???

 

[linney]

Look in to Port Forwarding as mentioned and linked to here.

remote desktop
thread779-1114681

Remote Desktop on Windows XP Professional
thread779-1407860


These are more general links.

How a Remote Desktop Connection Affects Windows XP Professional

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/280828/EN-US/

RDP, Console Sessions, Windows 2003 Server, And You

http://headblender.com/joe/blog/old/001166.html

 

[9iron]

Ok, I read those links. Now, lemme see if I'm understanding this port forwarding correctly. On my firewall, I created a new service called "Remote Desktop", cuz I'm clever like that. This new service uses port 3389. I then created a new rule that states:

Allow WAN to LAN(192.168.10.115) with the "Remote Desktop" service.

So, I am now telling the firewall to direct all port 3389 traffic to my machine, and mine only. Is this forwarding? And if it is, and since my firewall is now listening on port 3389, I can't send that data to any other machine but mine cuz it'll screw up the data, right?

This would answer my original question, and also my tongue-in-cheek question about RAdmin too, right? I would still only be able to have one machine as the RAdmin host, yes?

 

[linney]

I'm no expert on these matters, I can only refer you to others, hoping that they may help you.

This is for most Routers

http://www.portforward.com/english/routers/port_triggering/routerindex.htm

Allowing ports through Windows Firewall (SP2)

http://forums.mystery-axiom.com/showthread.php?t=26263

 

[smah]

It sounds like your router is set properly (some brands call it 'port forwarding', some call it a 'service', some call it a 'virtual host').

In short, yes, any 1 incoming port can be forwarded to only 1 internal IP address. So in the case of multiple RD users there are 4 possibilities to get to other internal machines:
[ol][li]Have the other machines listen on alternate ports, set the router's port forwarding for these alternate ports, and have the remote clients connect to these alternate ports. This is probably the best solution.[/li][li]Daisy-chain the RD connections. Connect to the RD of the one machine that will work by normal port forwarding, then use that internal machine to RD into another internal machine. No additional port forwarding on the router is required, but all users need an account on the first RD machine and only 1 user can use it at a time.[/li][li]Change the router's port forwarding settings to point at whichever internal IP address needs to be accessed. The downsides are still only 1 at a time and that someone actually needs to change this[/li][li]Set up a real terminal server. Expensive & somewhat complex[/li][/ol]

 

[9iron]

Well, nice to see I'm getting it. I'm right there with your option #1. How can I setup another machine's remote access to use a different port other than the default of 3389? Once this is done, I've got it licked.

Thanks,

 

[smah]

Well as I typed that earlier, I had these pages opened in new browser tabs so that I could paste the links in where appropriate. Apparently, I forgot that part by the time that I got done.

These should help:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306759

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304304