Question on setting up Win 7 Remote Desktop to connect via internet

darkcyber · 19 Jun 2012

I have setup Remote Desktop on two different Windows 7 computers and I am unable to connect to them. I have followed several examples, which are the same on setting this up, but still unable to connect. The examples show trying to connect using the computer name and user name. If you are connecting say from your office computer to your home computer, do you not have to enter the IP address somewhere or does it just connect via the computer name?

I have yet to find anywhere to enter an IP address or connect any way beside just using the computer name. I am setting this up to connect Windows 7 to Windows 7.

Thanks!

chev65 · 19 Jun 2012

Team viewer tends to work the best for viewing machines on remote networks.

TeamViewer Download

darkcyber · 19 Jun 2012

chev65 said:

Team viewer tends to work the best for viewing machines on remote networks.

TeamViewer Download

Thanks for the tip! So, does that mean that Windows 7 Remote Desktop will not connect via the internet?

I personally use Ultra VNC, but I am setting this up for a friend. Does TeamViewer require ports to be opened to make the connection?

chev65 · 19 Jun 2012

Here are the directions for using Windows Remote Desktop outside of the home network. It's a bit more complicated than just using Team Viewer which I believe is why everyone seems to use Team Viewer instead.

Allow Remote Desktop connections from outside your home network

Application: TEAMVIEW External port: 80 Internal port: 80 Protocol: TCP (Default port, no configuration necessary)
Application: TEAMVWER External port: 5938 Internal port: 5938 Protocol: TCP (Alternative port for Teamviewer versions 3x, 4x and 5x)

richnrockville · 19 Jun 2012

FWIW: Logmein has a free version that does not require setting any ports or whatever to use.
The only problem with the free version is that it doesn't support file transfers.

I have used UltraVNC and hamachi (the free version) which also works fine.

Remote Desk Top connections over the internet require a static IP or a DNS entry someplace so that they can communicate. Much more complicated than just putting in a computer name or IP.

Rich

darkcyber · 19 Jun 2012

richnrockville said:

FWIW: Logmein has a free version that does not require setting any ports or whatever to use.
The only problem with the free version is that it doesn't support file transfers.

I have used UltraVNC and hamachi (the free version) which also works fine.

Remote Desk Top connections over the internet require a static IP or a DNS entry someplace so that they can communicate. Much more complicated than just putting in a computer name or IP.

Rich

Looking for something easy and pretty secure. My DSL is DHCP from the phone company, so I have to use NO-IP to make it to mine. I have my own router and the phone company just has their modem set to DMZ, pass everything to my router. I wanted an easier setup for my friends computer. They also have DHCP issued DSL IP addresses and have the phone companies modem/router. So, port forwarding is going to be a big pain, unless I can get a solution that does not require ports to be opened...i.e. piggybacking on 80 or something.

I will need something fairly secure for them also. I know nothing is 100%.

richnrockville · 20 Jun 2012

Hamachi which is a free VPN can be the encrypted tunnel to your machine but each machine also has to run Hamachi. Then UltraVNC can be installed and it should work securely.

Search on hamachi download, remember to make sure that it is a download from logmein.com

Rich

chev65 · 20 Jun 2012

Hamachi has been causing lots of connection problems lately on various different machines.

As I already pointed out, Team Viewer uses port 80 which is already open so no port forwarding is required.

richnrockville · 21 Jun 2012

chev65 said:

Hamachi has been causing lots of connection problems lately on various different machines.

As I already pointed out, Team Viewer uses port 80 which is already open so no port forwarding is required.

Where is a pointer to where Hamachi is causing connection problems?

Rich

doubled822 · 21 Jun 2012

You may want to set up a PPTP VPN tunnel between the connections. I did this recently to increase security over opening port 3389 (default for RDP) on my router. You can do this all within Windows without any third party software or servers. See here for setting up the computer you wish to connect to:

How to Set Up PPTP VPN Server in Windows 7

Once you have that set up, you will need to open port 1723 on your router under Port Forwarding or "Applications and Gaming" as it says on my Cisco router.

Then when you are ready to connect with the client, see this article on setting up the client connection:

Windows 7 PPTP VPN Client Setup

You will need to know the public IP address of the computer/network you're trying to connect to. You can determine this by going to What Is My IP - Shows Your IP Address from the server computer. If you're worried about your dynamically assigned IP address, they typically don't change over long periods of time, at least with Comcast. Mine has not changed once since I installed it, but if you wish to use No-IP's service, it does work great as I have used this in the past.

I spent quite a few days getting this to work and ran into problems with IP addressing. if you have any problems, let me know and I can help!

EDIT: Once you successfully establish a connection, there's a chance you won't be able to access your computer by name in RDP. It will be handy to have the computer's local IP address.