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Help with windows xp remote desktop web connection

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by camhart73

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I've installed the needed remote desktop stuff off my windows xp cd. I've forwarded ports 80, 443, 444, 4125, 3389, and my own personal port (I originally only had 3389 and my own port (i changed the default away form 80) fowarded but then I read somewhere those other ports needed it also). I can access my workstation from a computer on the same network thingy (sorry, I'm newish to this) by going to start->accessories->communications->remote desktop connection then typing that computers LAN (i think thats the term) IP address.

My problem is, I'm moving in a few weeks and the computer is staying back home with my little brother and i want to be able to access it. So I need to be able to connect to it through IE using remote desktop web connection but whenever i type in http://externalip:port/tsweb/ or http://externalip/tsweb/ nothing happens and the "This page cannot be displayed screen" pops up.

15 replies

by joel_iv

Do you have IIS running on the pc you want to access? You don't need to set up a website, but you will need to have the services running.

by david.wallis

why dont you go to

www.logmein.com

and install that software on the pc you want to control?
its free and gives you remote access :)

its a really good piece of software highly recommended, and widely used over here :)

by camhart73

I'll remember that if i don't get this working :D

by camhart73

I know I've installed it, though I'm not sure if it's running. I'll look around to see if i can figure it out, but please if you see this before i post again let me know how i can start IIS if its not running.

by nimmo

Why not get a dynamic DNS account http://www.dyndns.org enable it on your router at home and port forward 3389. Then simply open RDC and connect via hostname to your brothers PC, that way when your IP address changes you can still access your brothers PC.

One other thing close all those other ports you dont need them open.

by camhart73

I can just make it a static IP anyway can't I? And then just foward the ports.

by camhart73

Ok I did what you said, and it appears to have done the trick :D. Now my question is, what did i just do by setting that up haha? And why wouldn't just using my IP address work but this does and all I inputed was my IP address?

by nimmo

It will work but because you have a dynamic IP address you will find that at one stage it will stop working and you wont be able to connect, because your IP address has changed.

By using dynamic DNS you are always updating your DNS record which will allow the mapping of your dynamic IP address to a hostname that you specify.

As for changing to a static address you will have to pay for that on top of your service charge.

by camhart73

So now if i setup a second computer is there a way i could distinguish which computer I connect to? And would I need another domain name for it or could I somehow use the same one?

by nimmo

What you will need to do is to setup port forwarding on another port. For example if you are already using 3389 use say 3390 and setup port forwarding in your router to pass RDC requests that come in on 3390 to the other computer.

All this means is that when you want to connect to the other computer you will have to specify the port number for example: , you must specify the port number by inserting a colin between the IP address and the port number.

I recommend that you do setup a dynamic DNS account then you wont have to worry about when the IP address on the other router changes.

If you have dynamic DNS you connect by using RDC but specifying the hostname for example:
(first computer) and (second computer), you will only need one DNS name.

It is exactly how you connect to a registered domain it just a good way for people with dynamic IP address to be able to remotly connect to their systems.

If you dont want to setup a dynamic DNS account you will just have to keep track of what IP address is one the other router.

by camhart73

I got it all setup and everything (even used registry editor to change the port on my one pc). But for some reason I can only connect to PC1 by typing in the DynamicDNSthing or DynamicDNSthing:3389, and whenever i try DynamicDNSthing:3390 (which is what i changed the default port to on my second pc) it doesnt work...

Any ideas?

by camhart73

I've already done all of the port fowarding with my router. Its a Home Portall 1000hw by 2wire. RDC listens on the port 3389 by default on both of my PC's. So what I did was i changed the one pc to listen on 3390 so that i could foward port 3389 to PC1 and 3390 to PC2.

by nimmo

You dont want to change the port on your PC's, you want to add a port forwarding rule in your router stating that any traffic from external on port 3389 is to be forwarded to your first PC, and any traffic on 3390 is to be forwarded to the IP address of your second PC.

You will also want to make sure that your PC's firewalls are configured to allow the incomming RDC connections.

For extra security you could add in your router's forwarding rules that only traffic from your IP address it allowed to be forwarded into the other network.

I should have asked earlier what make is your router? take a look at this site it has a lot of different router makes and shows the setting up of port forwarding.

http://portforward.com/

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