Remote desktop secure?

[Mechphisto]

I'd like to remote desktop into my WinXP Pro at home from my PC at work.
But if I open that port (3384 or something like that) on my Linksys router
and allow it to forward packets to the PC, and if I allow that port traffic
on my built-in WinXP firewall, am I opening myself up to a huge hole in my
security?
Can any scriptkiddie who even knows what IRC is hack their way into my PC
through that port?
This is assuming I have an uptodate anti-virus and don't allow a trojan
horse to allow a remote user backdoor access. Just having the ports open,
can someone brute-force in or somehow get through?

Thanks for any help!
Liam

 

[Phil \(a.k.a. purplehaz\)]

If you set it up correctly you'll be very secure. I use it everyday and am
actually using it right now. I'm home, this computer is at an office.

Some things you can do to stay secure:
First - you should change the listen port that remote desktop listens on.
You can change it to any available port you want. There's like 65000 on the
computer. This way the person would have to know your ip address and the
correct port. Without the correct port it doesn't work. Check out this
article on changing the listen port:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;306759

Second - setup your router so that it will only forward a connection attempt
if the ip address of the remote computer matches the ip you enter in the
router. In my netgear firewall/router I enter in my home ip address as a
trusted ip and tell it to let this ip thru. When I try to connect, the
firewall sees my ip and says, this ip is ok go ahead and forward it, it lets
me thru and connects. Any other ip will not work. The connection is refused.
This can be setup this way in software firewalls as well. I have zone alarm
working in this config as well.

Third - use a cryptic password. Long, with letters (upper and lower case)
and numbers.