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Remote Desktop works in some places but not other places

I have a co-worker that is in Paraguay working remotely for several months. He needs to connect into our Canadian office (My location) via RDS. I set it all up on his laptop before he left to make sure it would work for him.
To test, I used a cell phone hotspot to ensure I was on an external network not on the internal LAN when connecting and it all worked like a charm.

Now he’s abroad and trying to connect using his house wifi and he can’t connect. It keeps getting the message: “Remote Desktop can’t connect to the remote computer for one of the following reasons: 1) Remote access to the server is not enabled; 2) The remote computer is turned off; 3) The remote computer is not available on the network.
Make sure the remote computer is turned on and connected to the network, and that remote access is enabled.”

So what can all play into the fact that when the laptop is on certain internet networks (on my cell hotspot for example), it can RDP into the office, but when on different networks (some wifi in Paraguay), it does not? Could it possibly something on my end in the office that could possibly cause that?

Topic

While I could write your testing was not very deep.

In reply to Remote Desktop works in some places but not other places

First read and perform the test noted at https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/lync/en-US/9e91314e-c782-4c6b-b8ba-5362c4f989f4/isp-may-be-blocking-port-3389?forum=winserverTS

Next, have the remote user try with a geo-relating VPN which pops up in the same area as the your province.

Re: RDS

In reply to Remote Desktop works in some places but not other places

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/remote/remote-desktop-services/clients/remote-desktop-allow-outside-access advices port mapping in the router or using a VPN when accessing from another location (or maybe better said: a device that’s not on the same LAN).

At my work all laptops working from home use software from Cisco to make a VPN connection to the company network. Works fine.
A VPN is a Virtual Private Network. Makes the computer in Paraquay part of your LAN, like when it is when connected in the office.

Or use any software like logmein or teamviewer. https://www.techradar.com/news/best-remote-desktop-software mentions 10 such programs, free or paid.
Teamviewer is used by many helpdesks to support their customers on another location. But, if I remember well, the customer must allow access on the PC the helpdesk tries to fix. Probably that’s not what you want.

Re: Alternative tools

In reply to Remote Desktop works in some places but not other places

I agree to Kees_B. Just try another remote desktop software that is able to work with complex network structure. Unfortunately in the list on Techradar there are only commercial tools. So if you need to solve the problem only one time, you may need some free alternative. I recommend Distant Desktop. It is free for commercial use. And it works.

Re: alternative tools

In reply to Re: Alternative tools

A company that can send one of their employees from Canada to Paraquay doesn’t really need a free solution. It needs a supported solution.

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