I cannot connect to a remote desktop from home using
remote desktop connection (cannot get the logon screen of
host machine), but can make connection at work (with the
same laptop i use at home). I have XP pro on my laptop
and a cable modem + gateway/router at home. I need to
make the connection from home desperately. Please help

Do you have a firewall at home? If so you need to make sure TCP port 3389
traffic is allowed.
A good test is to try to telnet from the client to the server over port
3389.

telnet <server ip> 3389

--

Thanks,
Marc Reynolds
Microsoft Technical Support

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.


"Chris" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:0b8101c3d723$22fb7d40$(E-Mail Removed)...
> I cannot connect to a remote desktop from home using
> remote desktop connection (cannot get the logon screen of
> host machine), but can make connection at work (with the
> same laptop i use at home). I have XP pro on my laptop
> and a cable modem + gateway/router at home. I need to
> make the connection from home desperately. Please help

Let me see if I am reading your message correctly.

You have a host machine at your work location that you wish to connect to
from home.

You know that Remote Desktop is set up correctly on the host machine,
because when the home laptop is on the same network at work, you can connect
just fine.

However, you cannot connect from home.

OK so far?

You need help from the network admins at work. The work network connects to
the Internet through some device. It gets a public IP address.

You can probably discover that public IP address by going to www.myip.com
from the work XP Pro host machine.

The device that connects the work LAN to the Internet will need to be
configured to forward inbound traffic on port 3389, TCP to your XP Pro host
machine.

This may be possible and doable in a small organization. In a larger
organization, it may not be a reasonable request. An alternative, in the
larger organization, is to ask whether VPN access to the network is
available. If so, running Remote Desktop Connection over that VPN should
get you the result you desire.

Tell us a bit more about the work location's network?

"Chris" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:0b8101c3d723$22fb7d40$(E-Mail Removed)...
>I cannot connect to a remote desktop from home using
> remote desktop connection (cannot get the logon screen of
> host machine), but can make connection at work (with the
> same laptop i use at home). I have XP pro on my laptop
> and a cable modem + gateway/router at home. I need to
> make the connection from home desperately. Please help