Router Configuration For Remote Access

[maloner]

Tell me, Gents......
I have a home network protected by a router and Zone Alarm Pro firewalls on each computer (XP Pro, two x Win98, and a Laptop XP Pro).
I want to allow the Laptop to have remote access to the XP Pro machine from anywhere on earth.
I have instructed ZAP on the XP Pro machine to allow remote access but, the question is, how do I configute the router, a Netgear Gateway RT311, to allow access to the home XP Pro machine from outside the LAN ?
Can anyone give me a lead on this, please ?
TIA

 

[mikesgroovin]

You will have to access the Netgear router's setup page and find where you can setup Port Fowarding. Use a specific port number and assign it to the internal ip address of the XP Pro machine. Then you have to setup the ZAP program on the XP Pro machine to wait on that specific port. As for ZoneAlarm, you might have to disable that or just allow ZAP to come through on that specific port. I don't know that much about ZoneLab software in order to direct you on how to do this. Perhaps their manual could though.

-Michael

 

[mikesgroovin]

Oh yes, You will also have to disable the WinXP firewall.

-Michael

 

[maloner]

Thanks -Michael, I'l have a go at that over the weekend.

 

[ekÆsine]

what is the remote access software you are using? winxp remote desktop or some other 3rd party software like pcAnywhere? i can help you out with both and if you have a dynamic IP, which you most likely have, than you need to use a DNS service to resolve your IP address otherwise you will have to know the new IP address every time it changes. there are many good free DNS services.

 

[maloner]

Hi ekÆsine,
I'm trying Access Remote PC, which I have just downloaded ( http://www.access-remote-pc.com ), but I have no particular allegiance to it.
I do have pcAnywhere v10, downloaded but not installed and, if that would be your recommendation as a more preferable option, I'd be more than happy to install and use that - especially given your generous offer to help me out
I am on ADSL so I have a static IP.
Thanks mate.

 

[rezurrectme]

VNC, or Virtual Network Computing (www.tightvnc.org) is the best remote desktop sharing program and it is free (released under GPL). It is platform flexible so can be used with any OS. You can also make it very secure by tunnelling it through SSH. The tightvnc documentation page will get you started with it.

Goodluck
Rez

 

[mikesgroovin]

Actually, I use remote administration everyday as part of my job and for other clients. RealVNC was the best free remote software. The worst thing that they did with this software was turn it into TightVNC. The program has gotten very sloppy and it got a little slower. The best thing about this software is that it is free and pretty easy to use. pcAnywhere is a little more complicated, not free and it takes up a little more resources.
Right now, I feel that the best remote access software is Remote Administrator or RAdmin. Is is not free but definatly worth it. It uses less resources than pcAnywhere and it is so much cleaner than any VNC product. It's also VERY easy to use.

-Michael

 

[maloner]

Ok, -Michael, you've got me ! I'll go get RAdmin (now that I've installed pcAnywhere 10.5.1 Corporate - and uninstalled Remote Access ).
This better be good or "someone's" dead meat !
brb with RAdmin.

 

[mikesgroovin]

Let me know what you think!
I don't want to totally knock pcAnywhere or anything. For a coporate environment, pcA is pretty sweet. RAdmin doesn't have the chat option, which is pretty key in a corp. setup.
Symantec hasn't really failed with any software that I can think of.....well, besides pcAnywhere v. 11 (what a piece of crap compared to pcA v10.5)

-Michael