Windows Remote Desktop: Configuring Your Firewall and Router Next Up: Configuring Your Router Eric Geier
Next Up: Configuring Your Router
If your PC isn't directly connected to your Internet modem and is instead running through a wired or wireless router, you must configure the router to connect to the Remote Desktop connection via the Internet. This configuration lets your router know where to direct Remote Desktop connections that originate from the Internet.
Configuring your router consists of setting it to forward data, which comes in to certain ports, to the computer you have set up with the Remote Desktop Connection. For either Windows XP or Vista, TCP port 3389 (which Remote Desktop uses) must be forwarded to the Remote Desktop PC.
If you are setting up Web access, you also must forward TCP port 80 (or the non-default port you set) to the host computer. If you aren't sure exactly how to set up these port forwards, these steps should help:
Access your router's Web-based configuration utility by bringing up your Web browser, typing in the IP address of your router, and pressing Enter.
If you don't know the IP address, see your router's documentation or reference the Default Gateway value that's given in the connection status details of Windows.
When prompted, enter the username and password of your router.
You should have set these login credentials when you had set up your router; however if not, you can reference the default values in the router's documentation.
Find the Virtual Server or Port Forwarding tab of the router's administration screens.
Enter the port details for each port you need to forward (discussed in the previous paragraphs) by entering information into the appropriate text boxes or selecting options from list boxes. Figure 3 offers an example.
You may have to enter a name, which would be for your reference, like remote desktop or remote desktop Web access. Sometimes you can pick the computer (identified by the Computer Name) you want to forward to from a drop-down menu list, or you may have to enter the IP address of the computer.
You can find your computer's IP address by referencing the connection status details of Windows. Lastly, you'll probably have to enter the port you want to forward, which were given earlier for both Remote Desktop and Web access.
Click a Save or Apply button.
Next you need to make sure the port(s) are always forwarded to the correct computer. If you are using dynamic IP addresses on your local network (which is the default method), meaning they're automatically assigned to your computers using the router's DHCP server, you'll need to do some additional configuration.
You must assign a static IP address to at least the computer that's going to be hosting the Remote Desktop Connection. This is because the IP address you just set up to forward the ports to will sometime be given to another computer or become unused if it's being automatically assigned.
You have two ways you can go about giving your computer a permanent IP address. If your router supports it, you can reserve an IP address for the computer in the router's configuration utility. This is preferred so you don't have to change your computer's actual settings and connecting to other networks will be much easier. However, if the feature isn't available you can always manually assign your computer (network adapter) with a static IP address in Windows.
Stay tuned-in for the final installment of this series, where we'll connect to the remote desktop connection via the client application and via Web access. Plus, we'll discuss how to overcome having a dynamic (changing) IP address.
About the Author: Eric Geier is the Founder and President of Sky-Nets, a Wi-Fi Hotspot Network. He is also the author of many networking and computing books, including Home Networking All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies (Wiley 2008) and 100 Things You Need to Know about Microsoft Windows Vista (Que 2007).
