Remote Desktop for Dummies
This is an extensive guide for remote desktop using the Windows OS and DynDNS. This article should be everything you need in order to remotely use your computer. This article is co-written by Andrew McGinnis from Uniform Solutions and we hope to cover everything that you need to remotely use your computer.
Introduction
Windows XP Professional includes a hosting utility called Remote Desktop that can be used by the PC in your remote location to enable access to all of your applications from any PC with Windows XP (Home or Professional) and an internet connection. Remote Desktop is an absolutely fantastic utility that once setup at the host location, is easy to use and gives you the freedom to work from anywhere – just like you were at your store.
Summary of Requirements
1. The main component would be a high speed internet which would give you steady internet. This is absolutely necessary. If you have dial-up, don’t even trying this procedure.
2. Get a router capable of “port forwarding” such as the Linksys WRT54GS router. This router has a hardware firewall to keep hackers out, but can forward remote desktop requests to the PC you would like to connect to at the remote location.
3. Since most DSL providers use a “Dynamic IP” address, you will want to create and account with DynDNS so you can type in a name like “techblog.dyndns.org” in the Remote Desktop connection dialog to connect to your PC through your DSL router at your remote location.
4. The PC at your remote location must have Windows XP Professional or the Media Center Edition. Any PC that will access the PC must have Windows XP or Media Center.
Getting Started
If you have a router capable of updating a dynamic domain name service and also forwarding IP addresses and ports, you may be able to use Remote Desktop with very little effort.
The first thing to do is determine what kind of router you have and if it will support a dynamic domain name service like DynDNS.com. DynDNS.com offers a free service that helps you access your dynamic IP address easily. Linksys routers have a section in their menus called DDNS for dynamic DNS. If your router supports DynDNS.com, follow the instructions below.
1. Create a DynDNS Account
Account -> My Services -> Add Host Services -> Dynamic DNS
Enter a hostname, it can be anything. I entered “techblog”. Hit Add Host.
2. Enabling Remote Desktop
The next thing to do is to enable Remote Desktop on the computer that you will connect to. Right click on My Computer, select Properties, and click on the Remote tab. Check the box that says Allow users to connect remotely to this computer.
To use Remote Desktop, you must also have a password set for your Windows username. If you do not log into Windows using a password, click on Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> User Accounts. Then select the user that you log in as and create a password.
3. Setting a Fixed IP Address
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I agree with the gist of the article. Remote desktop is great. I work from my home one day a week, yet I’m still able to access multiple computers that I use within our office.
However, I have to take issue with the requirements section. Item 4 said:
4. The PC at your remote location must have Windows XP Professional or the Media Center Edition. Any PC that will access the PC must have Windows XP or Media Center.
In fact, Microsoft has a
Message: hi i just tried your remote desktop for dummies. when ever i go to
whatismyip.com the number changes. will this effect my remote desktop? also i followed all of the steps above, but i’m still unable to connect.
thank you
andrew
Andrew,
Like most computer users, Andrew, you have dynamic IP address which keeps changing on an irregular basis. Dyndns keeps track of this changing IP addresses and updates your server details.
In other words, the reason you are using dyndns is because of this reason. No matter what your ip address is, for example, if my server name that I chose is techblog.dyndns.org, it is always going to point to the new IP address.
We shouldnt have to worry about our IP address after installing Dyndns. Just remember the server you created.
I hope this helps…
Cheers
Abhinav Kaiser
Blah – I got cut off in the middle of my commment above.
What I was trying to say is that Microsoft has Remote Desktop for Macintosh OS X, as well as the other OS’s mentioned in the article. As perverse as it sounds – yes, in fact, you can remote desktop to Windows boxes from a Mac.
Just Google “OS X” and “remote desktop” to find more information. The download is free from Microsoft.
cheers,
David
i’m still unable to establish a connection. what do you think might be the problem? i’m useing satalite on the host computer do you think its to slow of a connection?
do i have to install the dyndns software on my computer also or just the host?
you will have to install the dyndns software on your computer for it to function… Also, Andrew could you explain me how your network is setup….
ok i have satallite my grandpas farm. it also has some security cameras. those are supposed to be a network dvr card thing also. thats the computer i want to remote into. its 512kb and about 100kb upload. the modem is connected to a wrt54g linksys router. i went ahead and followed all of your instructions for the dns. now i’m about 78miles away and i try to connect using my computer at home. when i try to connect using the host name i made, but i keep getting a message saying unable to establish connection it might be because of 3 reasons. i forget what they are. i have no idea why i’m unable to get connected the dyndns software works. its green. and no warnings.
im going to crazy. i don’t know why its not working.
First of all, make sure that the dydns is installed and configured on your grandpa’s computer. Also make sure that their firewall allows dydns to function along with remote computer.Speed shouldn’t be a problem. Make sure that you have made the changes that I have written regarding the linksys router.
Let me know how it goes…
ok so i went back up there and the dyndns software is yellow. it says something about a warning, but i have no idea what that means
you can open the log by double clicking on dyndns in the task bar. Let me know what the warning is about….
it says “current ip(192.168.1.100) is not public
Nice article. Instead of running that DynDNS Updater application, I don’t know you wouldn’t just use the DDNS feature on the Linksys WRT54G (under the Setup tab) and let the router handle the sending of the current IP address to DynDns.org.
I tried to use that feature and it didn’t seem to work too well for me. So, I don’t suggest that feature to other people. Did it work well for you?
Yes, it is working great.
If you read the DynDNS FAQ, they actually prefer software clients over hardware clients. They even have a section on Linksys, and why some of them do not work with DynDNS:
Linksys chose to ignore our published specifications when writing the update software that they built into some of their routers. As such, these products became broken as soon as we made a change to our underlying infrastructure, which would have been transparent had they followed our guidelines.
Hi,
Is it possible to remotely connect to two computers through one router? One computer has a dyndns hostname and that hostname is entered in the router, and can be connected to fine. However, I create a hostname for the other computer, add it to a group in the DynDNS Updater application, and I am unable to connect. How would I go about doing this? Would I need two routers?
Joel,
You can remotely connect two computers if they are using the same router. Actually, you do not need dyndns to do so… There is an internal ip address that your computers would have, something like this : 192.168.1.100. You can open your remote desktop application and enter the internal ip address. If it doesn’t work, then there could be some other problem with your remote desktop application.
Abhinav,
Sorry, I don’t think I was clear enough. I have two computers at home that I would like to connect to while I am at work. Both of those home computers use the same router. Currently, at work, I am able to connect to one of them via a DynDNS host name. But when I try to setup a host with the other computer, It only seems to want to connect to the opposing computer.
Hmmmm…
This is something that I haven’t thought about.
I can think of 2 solutions but can’t swear on either one as I have not tried them myself.
1. Remote into one computer at home and from that remote into your other home computer. So, its more like remoting using a remote computer. Not sure if your computers are fast enough though or if Windows remote desktop would allow this…
2. In my guide, look for the router settings. I have specified that port 3389 be used. Use a different port like 3390 to forward to your other computer. Use the advanced options under remote desktop application to change the port number. This in theory should work…
I am curious to know if either one of these work… Let me know…
I have tried your first idea, but I am unable to connect to computer #2 through RMD or even Windows Explorer (both are in same workgroup). I am starting to believe it has more of something to do with computer #2’s version of Windows XP. I am not even able to connect to computer #2 while physically using #1 itself. What is weird is that I can browse computer #1 through windows explorer using #2, but not vise versa. Could it be that #2 uses Home edition and #1 uses Professional? When going to the System properties on #1, in the Remote tab, there are sections for both “Remote Assistance” and “Remote Desktop” – whereas for #2 in the Remote tab of system properties, there is only a “Remote Assistance” section.
I did change the port for the other computer. Home #1 using 3389, #2 using 3390. I have yet to create a DynDNS hostname for #2, although I have looked through the “Remote Desktop Connection” application options, and could not find an option to change the port number. Are you sure this option exists?
Joel,
there must be something wrong with your computer connections. Make sure the firewall is disabled.
Regarding changing the ports, I got confused with another remote desktop program called VNC.
Let me know what happens after you disable the firewall..
ps : you can access a xp professional system using xp home but not vice versa.
From my laptop, i can access my xp games pc, and through it my other home pc .. and its external hdd, via the router remotely, and they are all on wireless lan, on 108 mbps, but only whilst at home..i went around to a friends house, and it wouldnt connect at all…any ideas?
I want to help my mum who lives in another country with her pc, and as shes getting on a bit, its hard to explain thing like (talk through installations ect) to her, im still not looking forward to explaining how to get her end setup in the first place, i just hope my brother in law is nearby lol…
Installing the DynDNS software on the remote computer?
Does this mean the computer that I want to connect to remotely or the computer I am am trying to access the remote computer?
Can I have web requests go to a different port automatically?
Yes, but not with just DNS – you need to use our WebHop service, which allows you to enter a port as part of the redirected URL, so you could accomplish this for HTTP requests by setting up hophost.webhop.net to point to http://dynhost.dyndns.org:yourport/urlinfo/ (these hostnames are examples only, you can use your own names here).
(top)
Easier answer out there: http://www.logmein.com
I’ve used Remote Desktop (RDP) and Terminal Server remote control for years-it’s great, and native. But it can be challenging to get to work, and in some instances you can NEVER reach the machine (as in my case, I can’t reach it from work because we go through a proxy-none of the ports are permitted outbound).
Just sign up for the free version of LogMeIn. The pro version adds some cool features, but for basic remote control it rocks.
Good luck
Hello. I have read every article I can find regarding connecting to multiple computers through a router using Remote Desktop and have followed the steps very carefully. Using the default port (3389) I can individually connect to each of the computers behind the firewall (other removed), but as soon as I go through the procedure of changing the port numbers to unique identifiers in the router & registry, I can’t connect to either of them. The IP address that I have is dynamic, but it has been with me for months. The router is a Belkin F5D5231-4. Are there some situations where these steps simply will not work? Do I need a DNS server thingy? Thanks for any advice…
Hey, this worked perfectly! Thanks! first try, just follwed it step by step.
Hi,
I have a similar issue, the only problem is that i have two computers connected at the other end to the Router. Now how do i remote access my desktop on the other end.
Will Keeptrying,
According to this Microsoft KB article, you will have to change the registry in order to use a different port with Remote Desktop application.
Let me know if you decide to go ahead and alter your registry and also the results…
Abhinav
HI………i READ THE TWO PAGES ON REMOTE DESK I OBTAINED A DYNDNS ACCOUNT AND DID THE INSTALL AND THE DESK TOP SEEMS TOBE OPERATING CORRECTLY CK THE ip AND IT IS UPDATING TRY TO CONNECT FROM MY dell lap top and it keps coming up timmed out or not able to locate servicer, any suggestion on what to do to get it to connect??
Thanks
Bob
A follow up note I forgot to say I was trying to connect thur and wireless network, using linksys broadband router wireless-G I am not able to get remote Desk to connect
Any info you may have on a wireless set up will help…….
Bob
same problem. if i go here: what is my ip adress and location? i see that my ip is changing very often. only the location is the same everytime.
Is it possible to connect from a laptop computer in say America to a host computer in Australia.
Cannot seem to connect within my home network. Trying to connect to 192.168.0.7. Opened the port (3389) on my router. The other pc on my home network will simply not find my desktop machine. Any ideas?
I have followed all steps listed and have confirmed (as much as possible) that the correct information was entered. But I still cannot make a remote connection. When I am at home, using my home’s wireless network, I can make a remote desktop connection from my laptop to my desktop (both on the same wireless network … the desktop is the primary pc and connects via a patch cable to the router … the laptop uses the wireless connection). When I am at work, however, the connection fails (I get a message on my laptop that “the client could not connect to the remote computer). I am using a Linksys WRT54G router.
I set the router up for remote management, by the way, and I am able to manage the router remotely.
Any ideas?
Hi I have a number of computers setup to accept remote connections. One being a dvr w/ 8 security cameras. My question however is, can I connect to a host without it logging out. I know I can achieve this with pc anywhere. Can I do it with remote desktop.
i have been using remote desktop quite succesfully via dyndns but recently ran into some problems. I am now unable to connect to my office computer remotely.it seems as if the system has slowed down to a trickle as the remote window opens but it’s rither black or shows my remote screen but i am unable to access it. I have made no changes as far as i can see.please help!
If you just need basic use of the remote computer to help family or friends while they watch or do some stuff yourself, just sign up for a free http://www.logmein.com account. Simple, free, allows the other end to see what you are doing (or not based upon settings) for tutorial type help and does not require any messing with ports or router settings. 256bit encryption as well.
http://www.logmein.com
I use it all the time for multiple computers.
I’ve been using dynamic dns for years. It works great. At first I tought it would fail at some point and leave me not able to connect and access my computers remotely.
But it has not, and I use the free version too. I use no-ip.com and it’s been very successful like i said for years now. I remotely access servers and desktops using rdp often and this really helps. Firewall and router manufactures have come along over the years to to incorporate DDNS into thier products.
On-Demand Remote Support Software
I did everything correctly,((i think) and it does not work. i notice that after i did step 3. Setting a Fixed IP Address., it will not connect to the internet. also there was a windows error message. something about there are 2 computers with the same ip address. when i changed the setting back to automatic( from ‘Select Use the following IP address, type the IP address manually, and press the tab key to move to the subnet mask’), then the internet connection started to work. please help
I got this to work, but it is extremely slow from the remote computer. At work I have a fairly beefy machine, but also a low end laptop with little memory, both are equally slow. I have the Linksys WRT54G on the home machine with a McCafee fire wall with remote desktop enabled.
Any thoughts?
John
Hiya!
I have a laptop at home with Windows XP Professional installed and I would like to access my work computer, however at work they all run on Linux. Is there any way I can still use a remote desktop facility? It would be ideal if it worked both ways – if I can access my laptop from work and vice versa.
Cheers!
hey i read this article and installed the dyndns and created the account but not i can seem to configure my belkin router can any one help????
Abhinav
Thank you for this excellent article. I followed it to the letter & my RDC worked first time.
Thanks again
Nick
This works. The only thing the article leaves out is that you have to reboot after making the change in registry.
Abhinav Kaiser Says:
August 11th, 2006 at 2:01 am
Will Keeptrying,
According to this Microsoft KB article, you will have to change the registry in order to use a different port with Remote Desktop application.
Let me know if you decide to go ahead and alter your registry and also the results…
Abhinav
I have a Linksys WRT54G ver.2 .
I set up everything as you stated and I am able to remotely connect using my desktop’s ip address, which I made fixed as instructed.
The issue is I cannot connect using the host name I created on DynDNS.com. It doesn’t see the desktop unless I use the ip. Now correct me if I’m worng, but isn’t the point of setting up the dns so that you don’t have to have a fixed ip address. It keeps track of whatever your ip is through the updater…? Can I change back to an automatic ip?
Confused…
Thanks in advance.
When I type in the DynDNS info into the DDNS tab, it says “connecting to server please wait!” and then does nothing. If I leave that section and comes back, under status it says “abusive update.” Do you know the solution to this problem?
I am using a belkin router. I have set up a Dyndns account and the udate settings in the Blekin so I can access the GUI of the router remotely, this is great. I have an old PC I want to us as a web page server or FTP. How can i set up the router to view the webpage or FTP pages and still get to the Gui of the router. I believe I did it befor using the DMZ setting. but the router forwarded all incoming web request to the old PC and I could not get to the router GUI going to my dyndns.org name I set up.
Thanks don