Remote Desktop port problem

[Arif Khokar]

I recently installed Vista Enterprise. I haven't had any success
enabling remote desktop. First off, under the System Properties Remote
tab page, I've selected "Allow connections from computers running any
version of Remote Desktop (less secure)." Second, I made sure that I
enabled the Remote Desktop exception to Windows firewall. Third, all
Terminal Services related services are started. Fourth, running netstat
-an shows that the computer is listening on port 3389 on 0.0.0.0, but
not on 127.0.0.1, nor on my local network address assigned by the router.

Trying to probe the port from grc.com shows that it's stealth when
Windows Firewall is on but closed when Windows firewall is off. Trying
an unrelated program on a different port and allowing an exception
through the firewell showed that the port was open.

Is there anything that I may be overlooking?

TIA.

 

[Arif Khokar]

So I'm guessing you're trying to remote desktop from outside your lan.
Correct.

Then you need to go into your router and route the ports used for remote
desktop to the destination computer's ip address forr remote desktop to
work outside your lan.

Which I have already done I believe. I have noticed that regardless of
whether I forward the port to the machine in question, running a port
probe on port 3389 shows that it's closed (as long as Windows firewall
is off). Also, attempting to telnet (from outside the LAN) into the
computer on port 3389 results in a connection refused error. The result
doesn't change regardless of which Remote Desktop connection option I
choose under the Remote tab of the System Properties dialog.

 

[Arif Khokar]

So I'm guessing you're trying to remote desktop from outside your lan.
Correct.

Then you need to go into your router and route the ports used for remote
desktop to the destination computer's ip address forr remote desktop to
work outside your lan.

Which I have already done I believe. I have noticed that regardless of
whether I forward the port to the machine in question, running a port
probe on port 3389 shows that it's closed (as long as Windows firewall
is off). Also, attempting to telnet (from outside the LAN) into the
computer on port 3389 results in a connection refused error. The result
doesn't change regardless of which Remote Desktop connection option I
choose under the Remote tab of the System Properties dialog.

 

[Arif Khokar]

fuzor_silverbolt wrote:

<snip>

Anyway, I finally solved the problem. It turns out that there was a
problem with my router. I had to disable all the forwarded ports and
renable the ones I needed. That allowed port 3389 to be seen as open
from outside the LAN.

In any case, thanks for your help.