Remote Desktop Windows Firewall

First I'd like to state the problem I'm trying to solve. I would like to Remote Desktop to my machine running Windows 7 on port 3389 when I am on the LAN. If I am not on the LAN I would like to use a different port (i.e. 9999) which will forward to port 3389.

This is functionality I have made happen on my machine running Windows Server 2003 using just the built-in Windows Firewall. When I am on the LAN, I connect using port 3389. When I'm on a remote network, I have to use a different port which forwards to 3389. This is not something set up on my router, it's all done using the settings in the Windows Firewall. And, I have not been able to find similar settings on the Windows 7 Firewall.

Any help on this would be appreciated, either letting me know where the corresponding settings would be in Windows 7, or that this is not possible with the Windows Firewall in Windows 7. Thanks!

The required ports are opened up automatically with Win 7. You just need to go through the steps in this tutorial to set it up.

Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) - Network

I do understand that port 3389 is configured by default on the Windows Firewall. My next step is to be able to connect to my machine using a different port (i.e. 9999) when I am on a remote network, but still be able to use the default (3389) while on the LAN. So, when on a remote network port 9999 would need to forward to 3389. This is what I'm trying to figure out to do on the Windows Firewall.

qki2philip said:

I do understand that port 3389 is configured by default on the Windows Firewall. My next step is to be able to connect to my machine using a different port (i.e. 9999) when I am on a remote network, but still be able to use the default (3389) while on the LAN. So, when on a remote network port 9999 would need to forward to 3389. This is what I'm trying to figure out to do on the Windows Firewall.

Port fowarding is usually accomplished by using the router settings. I'm not sure if it can be done using the firewall settings or not.

It can be in Windows Server 2003. I wanted to see if it could be accomplished in Windows 7 or not.

qki2philip said:

It can be in Windows Server 2003. I wanted to see if it could be accomplished in Windows 7 or not.

I'm with Chev65 on this one... you're going to have to do it with your router... Unless you want to totally disable the router's firewall (definately not adviseable) windows firewall will never see it.

But I will add that IMO, the firewall in windows 7 is a flaming nightmare. It's hyper complex, does nothing new and quite frankly reqires magic encantations to adjust. I just turned it off in services and let my routers do their thing...