Remote Desktop Problems

[Rev. Michael L. Burns]

I have an XP Media Center desktop computer in my office and an XP Media
Center notebook I use when away from my desk. I am trying to set up Remote
Desktop on both systems with the hope of accessing/controlling the
computers from each other.

I am using a Linksys WRT54G v5 router. I can run Remote Desktop on my
notebook and connect to and use my desktop from it without problems through
my wireless connection. However, if I try to Remote Desktop my notebook from
my desktop over same wireless connection (Notebook wireless - Desktop cabled
to router) I get a black screen on the desktop after it connects to the
notebook. I get no error messages of any type. The desktop appears to
connect to the notebook and then the desktop screen goes black.

It seems to connect to the notebook since the notebook screen switches to
the user logon screen to lock out anyone from using it while it is being
used by another pc. As I said, the desktop screen goes black after
connecting to the notebook with only the yellow bar at the top indicating
that it is connected .

If I turn off the wireless on my notebook and reconnect it to the router by
cable I can then Remote Desktop from either computer to the other with no
problems seeming to indicate that they are set up properly and that the
firewall is not a problem but then they are both on the same side of the
router. It appears to be a wireless configuration problem with the router
but I'm not sure. I have disabled temporarely all the security settings in
the router but still no change.

I use Microsoft's Live OneCare for my firewall and it is set up the same on
both pc's. At any rate I disabled the firewall on both systems and retried
Remote Desktop again from both systems with the same results so it's not the
firewall. I can still Remote Desktop from the notebook to the desktop and
all works fine. Going the other way, from the desktop to the notebook
appears to connect to the notebook but then the desktop screen goes black.

I am forwarding port 3389 and have verified that it is not being blocked by
my ISP.

I can ping both computers ok even when notebook is wireless.

How can I configure the router to allow both pc's to use Remote Desktop?
Any ideas?

Thanks,
Michael

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I have an XP Media Center desktop computer in my office and an XP
Media Center notebook I use when away from my desk. I am trying to
set up Remote Desktop on both systems with the hope of
accessing/controlling the computers from each other.

I am using a Linksys WRT54G v5 router. I can run Remote Desktop on
my notebook and connect to and use my desktop from it without problems
through my wireless connection. However, if I try to
Remote Desktop my notebook from my desktop over same wireless
connection (Notebook wireless - Desktop cabled to router) I get a
black screen on the desktop after it connects to the notebook. I
get no error messages of any type. The desktop appears to connect
to the notebook and then the desktop screen goes black.
It seems to connect to the notebook since the notebook screen
switches to the user logon screen to lock out anyone from using it
while it is being used by another pc. As I said, the desktop screen
goes black after connecting to the notebook with only the yellow
bar at the top indicating that it is connected .

If I turn off the wireless on my notebook and reconnect it to the
router by cable I can then Remote Desktop from either computer to
the other with no problems seeming to indicate that they are set
up properly and that the firewall is not a problem but then they
are both on the same side of the router. It appears to be a
wireless configuration problem with the router but I'm not sure. I
have disabled temporarely all the security settings in the router
but still no change.
I use Microsoft's Live OneCare for my firewall and it is set up the
same on both pc's. At any rate I disabled the firewall on both
systems and retried Remote Desktop again from both systems with the
same results so it's not the firewall. I can still Remote Desktop
from the notebook to the desktop and all works fine. Going the
other way, from the desktop to the notebook appears to connect to
the notebook but then the desktop screen goes black.
I am forwarding port 3389 and have verified that it is not being
blocked by my ISP.

I can ping both computers ok even when notebook is wireless.

How can I configure the router to allow both pc's to use Remote Desktop?
Any ideas?

More than likely - your wireless is the problem - do you have the latest
driver/software for the wireless on your laptop *and* do you have the
wireless setup on the laptop so it is always connected - even when no one is
logged on? This can be especially 'tricky' if you use WEP/WPA/WPA2 (as you
should) on your wirless network.