Remote Desktop Connection

[safwan0308]

I have a computer running on Windows 7 64-bit and connected to the Internet using wireless adapter. I want to have remote connection to my PC at home from my school PC. I tried Remote Desktop Connection but when I entered my IP adddress, my PC couldn't.

Is it because I'm using dynamic IP instead of static IP? Or I should do some configuration on my router?

 

[eibgrad]

You will obviously need to know the public IP assigned to your router in order to connect to it. But that's only half the story. You also need to forward the Remote Desktop port(s) in your router so the router knows where to send the traffic that arrives on that port (i.e., locate the remote desktop machine you're trying to reach).

You can use tools like DynDNS.com or NO-IP.com to associate a name to your dynamically assigned public IP. If you’re not familiar w/ that process, let me know and I’ll explain further.

As far as the port forwarding goes, different applications use various ports to send network traffic between endpoints. In this case Remote Desktop requires port 3389. You can find specific instructions for setting up forwarding for many routers @ PortForward.com. There are even tools there to help you verify port forwarding is working properly without having to leave your home.

TIP: I find it a bit more secure to use a something other than the default port on the public side of the router. IOW, instead of opening port 3389 on the public side, you might open port, oh say…, 9220 instead and then forward it to 3389 on the private side (within your network). That will serve to frustrate hackers who might know of vulnerabilities in the protocol and decide to start poking around port 3389 hoping to exploit it. But if you make the port something the hacker isn’t expecting, it makes it a little harder to locate.

TIP: Instead of using Remote Desktop, consider using LogMeIn Free. A very nice product. Does almost everything Remote Desktop does, but doesn’t require port forwarding, so you don’t have to leave your ports open at all! Instead, it uses a rendezvous server and NAT traversal to avoid all this nonsense w/ ports and even finding your public IP. It works great and just makes remote access much, much easier (imo).

 

[petermoses]

windows 7 comes with peer to peer infrastructure using which you can directly access the m/c over internet even if your IP is dynamic. Each w7 gets a name(similar name) using machine name publication service. You can type this name in RDP client & access the PC.
http://apcmag.com/every_vista_pc_to_get_a_domain_name.htm

There also few freewares( LANoi pro etc) which uses this technology to directly RDP your home from anywhere.

 

[Catsrules]

Is going to be using the schools internet?
And is this school, a high school or collage?
If it is a high school, I bet they block every port number for remote access they can think of.
And i am not sure how collage feel about it, but I don't think they would care.

Another way to do this is using Hamachi. Just install it on both computers and set up a network, then your can remote desktop using the hamachi IP address of the remote computer. I do that all of the time so far no problems, you can even access your shared files from the computer, or what ever else you can do over a LAN because they are "directly" connected on the Virtual LAN.

Google Hamachi or Log me in Hamachi to find a download. Hamachi is free as long as it is used for non-commercial use