Remote Desktop with Dynamic IP

[philb101]

I have a Home PC & Laptop both running XP Pro SP2 & both with Dynamic IP addresses
I have used Remote Desktop to access the Home PC from the Laptop & that works fine from in the house
I am taking my Laptop to a customers site & wondered whether I would still have access to my Home PC from there.
Should I expect it to or not ? What changes might I need to make ?

 

[AllThingsGeek]

Well, do you have a router/firewall that you use at home? if so, then you will need to forward TCP port 3389 to the internal ip address of the remote desktop that you wish to access from the outside. make sure to use the external ip address when connecting from outside your home instead of your computer name. i would advise you to create a static ip address for your home computer that way if you should setup port forwarding within your gateway/router at home, the settings will never have to be changed. ultimately you want to port forward the TCP port 3389 to the internal (192.168.x.x or whatever yours is) address and make sure to use the live external address from your home. from within your home lan, you can find your external address by going to www.whatismyip.com

 

[NewCents05]

if your isp provider made your ip address dynamic then you can call them up and ask them to change it to static. This processes could take a couple of days though and you would have to go back through all your computers and type in the address they give you.

 

[AllThingsGeek]

a set of static IPs will also cost you money in most, if not all cases. if you really want to have a free static IP, just go to www.no-ip.com and sign up for a free account.

 

[kukuhead]

Well, do you have a router/firewall that you use at home? if so, then you will need to forward TCP port 3389 to the internal ip address of the remote desktop that you wish to access from the outside.

Hey, on this part of forwarding TCP port 3389 to the internal IP, how do i do it???

 

[Win2kpatcher]

Its really simple. Simply access your router configuration via its web interface and look for the "Port Fowarding" section. Sometimes it is located in "advanced" tools depending on the router type. Then you will enter the port you want to foward and the "INTERNAL/YOUR PC YOU WANT TO CONNECT TO" ip address.

So basically when you connect from your friends house you will not simply launch the remote desktop program and say "MYHOMEPC" and connect..it wont work. As AllThingsGeek mentioned you must use the IP address. So when you enter the name in the remote desktop program it will look like this "66.44.85.36:3389" with no quotes.

That sample IP address provided would be your routers external IP address as this is what you will be accessing then the router "fowards" the request for access via port 3389 on to the target PC which you have configured. You can find out your routers IP address when you enter the configuration, which is given to you by your ISP.

 

[kukuhead]

Thanks