Windows 7: Remote desktop 60 miles away

I am trying to take control of my moms computer. We both have Windows 7 professional. We went through all the Remote Desktop Settings but I cant get connected. In the box "Computer:" I type her IP address. She has AT&T DSL and I have Comcast cable. She has only a modem. I have a router and modem. What am I missing? Thanks for any help. Rick

Welcome to Seven Forums!

Remote Desktop doesn't really work throught NAT routers without some firewall work.

A much easier solution is to use something like Teamviewer. It's easy, gets through routers and firewalls and is free. I use it to support all my family's systems. There are other options as well but I've had no problems with Teamviewer.

http://www.teamviewer.com

Good Luck

Verify the option for Remote Desktop is opened up in the Windows firewall.

Also is the IP on her computer an internet IP or a non routable IP? (ex: 192.168.1.*)

This is why I suggested Teamviewer. No need to mess with firewall or router options. I think the OP is looking for something very easy.

Either use Remote Assistance or Teamviewer. Both you and her are behind NATs.

Hi there
You are missing a little piece of the trick here.
You have to set HER ROUTER to port forward to HER computer.

For example her Internet address might be 212.X.X.X (that's the IP address of her router) which the "Public Internet" sees.
Her computer on the LOCAL lan will probably have an address of 192.168.x.x

You have to port forward Port 5900 (or is it 5800 --but someone will correct me for the correct port for RDP) to HER INTERNAL LAN address 192.168.x.x

You also need to set the computer to allow remote connections and allow through firewall.

Cheers
jimbo

RDP port is 3389.