I am having problems connecting to my home PC from my laptop via Remote Desktop through IP. When I am at home I can connect fine by entering the PC's name on my Workgroup but when I am athome, school or work and I enter the IP address I get a message saying that it cannot connect. Both machines are running Windows XP Pro. Both have RD enabled/allowed. Windows Firewall is set to allow RD to connect. I have Dynamic IP address service setup so when/if the IP address changes I can know it, I use no-ip.com for this. I have also forwarded port 3389 which RD uses and I have checked it using canyouseeme.org and it says it is forwarded. Is there anything I am missing? Like I said, I can connect fine through RD at home on my own network using the name of the PC that is on the Workgroup but I cannot do it using the IP address from anyplace. Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated.
You shouldnt have to setup DMZ for RDP to work. In my router I just forward the RDP port to the internal IP address of the computer that acts as a terminal server. Then I use DynDns service where I setup a domain name to point to my external IP. Thats how I have it setup and it works fine. Double check your firewall and router settings again. Also, right click on My Computer > Properties > Remote and make sure that its set to allow to connect...
Hmmm...I didn't know I had to do that. Can I do that without messing up my home network? Would you mind explaining it to me?
You say the Windows Firewall is set to allow RDP. What is the scope allowed for that rule? Is it 'Any'? Because it is possible to set it to the local subnet only. That would explain why you can connect from home but not from outside, since you'd be outside the allowed scope.
It's probably a setting on your router. Google the model number of your router and RDP to see if someone has specific steps for your router to allow the packets. If you can't figure it out I would suggest www.logmein.com ... Install the software from your computer and then you can use their website to remote in. I know I know some people will geek out and say you shouldn't do that, but I am a computer tech. I work with a staff of like 40 other techs. Half of them use logmein because it's just quicker and easier to hook up many machines for remote use with it.
Start/Control Pane/Network Connections Right-click your Local Area Network connection and choose Properties Choose Advance tab Under Windows Firewall choose Settings Choose Exceptions tab Highlight Remote Desktop and choose Edit Look at Scope. I think it defaults to Any but you never know. You should also double-check your router settings to make sure it really is forwarding port 3389 for RDP and that it is actually forwarding it to the right internal IP address. Check to see if that matches up the IP address of the machine you're trying to access.
