Remote Desktop

[Maren]

I am currently running win xp pro over a cable modem. I have a Lynksis router that I would like to be able to use with remote desktop. After looking on the microsoft website; I opened up port 3389 on the router. However, I'm still unable to access my machine; instead getting a page cannot be displayed. Any ideas?

 

[Jeckler]

Sometimes you not only need to open the port, you need to tell the router what do do with a packet that arrives on it. Since your router uses NAT, any machine on the outside doesn't know any of your LAN machines even exists, it only sees your public IP.
There are two ways around this.
First, try putting your PC in the DMZ. Be warned that now you have no pretection whatsoever, besides what you might have on the PC, like Zonealarm.
Second, you've already opened the port, now tell your router to forward it to the PC on the inside. You should be able to find this info in the user manual, at Linksys's website, or if you tell us what model you have, someone here might be able to help. If you go this route, it's best to assign the PC a static IP, otherwise you'll need to re-forward the port to the new internal IP if it ever changes.

 

[Maren]

I am curious what you mean by the second option. The model of the router is BEFSR41. Below is a bit more detail on what I've tried so far.

In the Advanced tab of the router under forwarding, I have the port of 3389 listed. I also have both TCP and UDP checked. The address listed is what my computer shows as the IP under status when I look at the network connection. I also have the enable box checked for this port.

Remote Desktop works for me with no problem as long as I am connected directly to the cable modem. I do use Zone Alarm Pro, but have turned it off when trying to work with this issue.

I will try the DMZ to see if that makes a difference.

 

[Jeckler]

Your router looks to have port access and forwarding all rolled up into one, so you're fine there.
What firmware revision level is your router running?

 

[Maren]

I just updated the firmware so it's now running 1.44.2.

 

[Jeckler]

See if this helps then:

http://www.oecadvantage.net/ajarvi/Multiple_PC_RD.html

Down at the bottom is a reference to something called SPI, and to make sure it's disabled.
It also mentions that static IP's should be assigned.

 

[Maren]

I have assigned the machine a static IP and confirmed such. I also selected remote desktop as a service that can pass the win xp built in firewall. I have assigning my machine to the DMZ in the router. Not really sure where to go from here since it is still not working. The firmware version I have does not have the sp1 option. I'm thinking about downgrading to 1.47 as was shown in that example

 

[Maren]

sorry. should have typed 1.42 not 1.47