Saturday, March 8, 2014

How to Set Up a Remote Desktop From Your House


Remote Desktop With No Router
1. Make sure that the system you want to use as a Remote Desktop meets the minimum requirements to act as a Remote Desktop server. You need the Professional version of either Windows XP or Vista to be able to allow connections to your computer.
2. Log in to the computer you want to use as the remote host as the Administrator. Ensure that Remote Desktop is running on the computer by opening up My Computer and then going to the System information. Click the Remote tab. You should see the 'Allow remote connections to this computer' selection clicked. Check the box if it is not. Click OK and close out all of these boxes.
3. Create another account for yourself on this computer to use for connecting remotely. It's generally not a good idea to use the Administrator account to connect across the Internet.
4. Obtain the IP address of the computer. The IP (Internet Protocol) address is how computers communicate with each other over the Internet. It is a series of 4 numbers separated by dots, and will look something like this: 123.123.123.123. The easiest way to do this is through a web-based resource, like those given below, to find your IP address. Write this down for reference.
5. Go to the remote computer. Start up the Remote Desktop software on this machine by going to Start-->Accessories-->Communication Tools--->Remote Desktop.
6. When prompted for the computer name, type in the IP address you wrote down in Step 4. Click 'OK.'
7. After connecting, you will see the Remote Desktop login on your computer at home. Type in the name and password you created for yourself and log in.
Remote Desktop With Router
8. You will need to set your computer up with a static IP address. Open up the Control Panel and then go to the Network settings. Right-click on your network connection and open up the Properties selection. At the bottom of the tab, you should see a Connection Details button. Click this. The screen that opens up will give you a number of details, such as your current IP address, netmask and default gateway. Write down this information. On the same screen, click the button that says 'Assign IP Address Manually'. Then type in the above information that you just wrote down. Basically what you are doing is assigning your computer permanently the temporary address that it was handed by the router. This will allow you to route Remote Desktop properly.
9. Log in to the router. Open a web browser and type in the address http://192.168.1.1. You will be prompted for a name and password, which should be in the information that came with your router (sometimes it is on a sticker on the back of the router). Look for the Advanced settings tab (this might also be called Expert). What you need to do is access a feature called Port Forwarding. This is usually identified on the menu.
10. In the Port Forwarding menu, click on Custom or New Service. The router software will prompt you for a few pieces of information. Type in 'Remote Desktop' as the name of the new service. In the port information blank, type in '3389' (without the quotes). This is the Remote Desktop port number. Where you have the network service type, select TCP. Under the server information, type in the IP address of the computer where you installed Remote Desktop. You may have to repeat this information for the UDP network type as well (some routers combine the two).
11. Back out to the main menu in the router. Be sure to save the configuration file.
12. Use the web resource given below to obtain your IP address. Write this down. You will notice this is not the IP address (most likely in the form of 192.168.1.X) that you wrote down earlier. That's normal. The 192.168.X.X series of IP addresses are given out by the router to the machines on your internal network. The IP address you are finding in this step is your EXTERNAL IP address, which will allow you to connect to your internal network now because of the port forwarding procedure.
13. Go to the remote computer. Start up the Remote Desktop software on this machine by going to Start-->Accessories-->Communication Tools--->Remote Desktop.
14. When prompted for the computer name, type in the IP address you wrote down in Step 5 of this section. Click 'OK.'
15. After connecting, you will see the Remote Desktop login on your computer at home. Type in the name and password you created for yourself and log in.

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