I followed the instructions listed below:
Scenario 2: Using Remote Desktop outside your network
This is where things get a little more complicated. The procedure for
connecting to your desktop remains exactly the same, but the procedure
for getting to your desktop requires some thought. This assumes that
you have a persistent high-speed connection (cable or DSL)--if you only
have dial-up there's not much point in doing this, although it's
technically possible (but you'd have to have the patience of a monk).
See which scenario most closely matches your set up:
If you're connected directly to the Internet with your cable or DSL
connection without a firewall, do the same ipconfig procedure described
above to get your ISP-assigned IP address. Once you have this IP
address, connect to that IP as in Scenario 1. You may want to optimize
for bandwidth (see below).
If you're connected directly to the Internet with your cable or DSL
connection protected with a software firewall, do the same ipconfig
procedure described above to get your ISP-assigned IP address. You'll
need to authorize the remote access through your software firewall,
which means the first time you try it you may need to have someone
sitting in front of your computer to click the Allow Access button.
If you're connected directly to the Internet with your cable or DSL
connection and you're behind a hardware firewall, you'll need to open
port 3389. This is the port that Remote Desktop uses by default, but
the procedure for opening this port will be different for every
firewall. In most cases it will be found in the port forwarding or
security settings for your hardware firewall, and there are two
settings you'll need to enter: the external port you're permanently
opening to the outside world (port 3389), and the internal computer IP
that you're going to route that Remote Desktop Protocol to. The
internal IP is how your hardware firewall will know which computer you
want to access. You find the internal IP by using the ipconfig
procedure described above on the PC you want to control.
The above describes the most typical scenarios, but there's one
scenario that needs further explanation.
Multiple PC Remote Desktop
So what happens if you have more than one computer you want to connect
to? Microsoft didn't allow for this scenario for SOHO users; enterprise
users will likely use VPN and network authentication to be
automatically routed to the appropriate resources, but for everyone
else a clever solution is needed.
It's time to hack the Windows Registry! This is a fairly simple
Registry hack, so as long as you follow the instructions closely,
there's little danger of you damaging your system. But, as always,
Registry edits should only be done by relatively experienced computer
users.
Figure 3: Finding the correct port number registry key to edit
Click Start > Run then type regedit.
This will start the Windows Registry Editor. You'll need to navigate
down through the following directories:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
SYSTEM
CurrentControlSet
Control
Terminal Server
WinStations
RDP-Tcp
You should see something that looks very much like Figure 3. Double
click on the RDP-Tcp registry entry and the key editing menu will
appear (Figure 4).
Figure 4: Editing the DWORD value of the port number.
Click the radio box for Decimal Base mode--you can't enter a number
while it's in Hexadecimal mode. After you make the change, the Value
Data field should read 3389. This is the default port--now type a new
number, click OK, then reboot the computer. This computer is now ready
to accept RDP connections on that port. I typically start at 3389 and
go up from there depending on how many computers I want to have access
to: 3390, 3391, 3992, etc. There aren't any reserved ports in this
range that I'm aware of, so you should be able to add quite a few
computers without a problem.
Remember that when you re-map a computer to listen on a new port, you
also need to update the firewall port redirection accordingly. So
instead of having port 3389 push to 192.168.X.X (or whatever the
internal IP address is), you need to change it to port 3391 and
192.168.X.X (your settings will be different from mine).
When connecting remotely, you need to add the port number after the IP
address with a colon. So if your ISP-assigned external IP address is
65.43.X.X, you'll need to add :3396 after it like this: 65.43.X.X:3396.
