Access Your Windows PC Remotely ... For Free Configuring Your Network and Making the Connection Joseph Moran
Configuring Your Network
Although configuring a system to act as a Remote Desktop host is a breeze, getting the connection to work through a router/firewall takes some doing. First, you'll need to set up a port-forwarding rule in your firewall so that incoming traffic on port 3389 gets delivered to your host system. (Check your hardware's documentation for the correct procedure.)
It's also a good idea to configure your host system with a static rather than dynamically assigned IP address, which would render your port-forwarding rule useless when the address changed.
If your host system itself is running a software firewall, you'll also want to make sure in advance that it's configured to not reject the incoming port 3389 traffic it will receive (again, check the docs for your specific firewall software for details on how to do this).
Last but not least, when making the connection from client to host you'll need to specify the external, or "global" IP address assigned to your network by your Internet provider. If this address periodically changes (as is the case with most ISPs), then to maintain consistent access to Remote Desktop, you'll need to subscribe to a Dynamic DNS service. (More details on Dynamic DNS and how to set it up is available here.)
Making the Connection
To connect to your host system, fire up the RDC software, and in the computer field, type your network's the IP address (or your Dynamic DNS domain name, if you go that route). After clicking Connect and entering your account username and password, your client system will display a full-screen view of the host, and you'll have full keyboard and mouse control over it. The yellow bar centered at the top of the screen will allow you to switch your RDC session to a window, minimize it or shut it down.
Be advised that once you establish a Remote Desktop connection, the host machine will automatically return to the welcome screen (anyone logged into the system will remain that way, however). Conversely, if someone logs into the host during a Remote Desktop session (there won't be any indication that one's in progress) the client's connection will get dropped.
Finally, if you click on the RDC client's Options button before making a connection, you'll find various configuration settings you can use to customize and tweak your session.
Compared to Remote Desktop, many of the subscription-based remote access services offer more features and easier configuration (especially with regard to firewalls). We'll check out some of those next week and discuss when they might make a better choice than Remote Desktop.
Joe Moran is a regular contributor to PracticallyNetworked.
