Port Forwarding

[Dave Marden]

I am setting up 3 different computers to be on Remote
Desktop. I set up port forwarding to port 3389.
Wondering a few things.

Am I able to forward all 3 computers thru this port and if
not can I get at liest 2 of them going by also using port
1723?

When I set up a pc to be able to attach to my pc's do I
address it like (xxxx.xxxx.xxxx.xxxx:3389)where the x's
are my IP address given to me by my isp?

Is there any way of pinging these ports once they are set
up to see whether my router is giving me access to them?

Which port is more secure 1723 or 3389?

Thanks,
Dave Marden

 

[CheshireCat]

Hi Dave

I am setting up 3 different computers to be on Remote
Desktop. I set up port forwarding to port 3389.
Wondering a few things.

Am I able to forward all 3 computers thru this port and if
not can I get at liest 2 of them going by also using port
1723?

According to the following microsoft article
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/columns/northrup/03may16.asp
remote desktop requires 2 ports forwarding for each machine. Im not sure if
you have to forward both tcp and udp services, check with netstat -an on a
host pc to see which ports/protocols it's listening on.
If the server ports for this service can't be reconfigured then you'll only
be able to connect to 1 pc at any one time

When I set up a pc to be able to attach to my pc's do I
address it like (xxxx.xxxx.xxxx.xxxx:3389)where the x's
are my IP address given to me by my isp?

Yes. Reading the article above, it says you use the second address here for
logging on to the host pc

Is there any way of pinging these ports once they are set
up to see whether my router is giving me access to them?

No, ping doesn't work with ports.

Which port is more secure 1723 or 3389?

No port is secure when it has software listening on it and if it can be
compromised. Changing port adds a bit of safety against people attempting to
hack into a system using a common port.

The only way I can think of doing it is setting the router up to allow its
own remote administration then setting the port forwarding manually from the
remote desktop client machine when you need to access each pc.

 

[Sooner Al]

Look at this small page that explains how to access more than one XP Remote Desktop session behind a
firewall/NAT/router. It uses the XP ICF and a Linksys BEFSR41 as examples.

http://www.oecadvantage.net/ajarvi/RemoteDesktop/Multiple_PC_RD.html

The advantage of using a PPTP VPN tunnel to access multiple RD sessions versus opening one or more
ports, as illustrated on the link, is you only open one port, ie. TCP Port 1723 (and have GRE
Protocol 47 traffic enabled). Other than that the native encryption of the RD connection is the same
as the native encryption of the PPTP VPN link.

--
Al Jarvi (MS-MVP Windows Networking)

Please post *ALL* questions and replies to the news group for the mutual benefit of all of us...
The MS-MVP Program - http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights...