# Unable to use remote desktop



## Charlotte

I am trying to remote desktop from my work computer to my fathers home machine, I have enabled remote connection of both - but I cannot connect to his computer. I have set up a user name and password on his machine.

I have also tried to ping his computer but this fails also.

I am using his IP address for all this.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

Charlotte


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## johnwill

The fact that you can't ping his machine indicates you don't actually have connectivity to it. If you go to his place and use Network Tools, you can tinker with firewall settings and ping yourself from outside. When you get the Ping to make it through, you'll probably also be able to do remote desktop. You'll have to enable port forwarding through the firewall for port 3389 to use RDT, however the SP2 firewall does that for you. Also, RDT is ONLY available for XP-Pro, not XP-Home.

If you are using a machine that doesn't have RDT, consider something like UltraVNC to do remote assistance.


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## Charlotte

Sorry but how do I do the port forwarding and would the fact they have Norton installed cause a problem.

How do I use the local ping thing you suggested?

Thanks

Charlotte :smooch:


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## johnwill

I meant for Network Tools to be a link to the site, that was a cut-n-paste error.

Yes, any firewall will have to be configured to allow RDT access, and if they have a router, you'll have to forward port 3389 in the router as well.

If you go to Network Tools, you'll see that there is a ping option, you put the IP address in question in the box, select ping, and fire off the request. This allows you to try pings from outside your local network to yourself.


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## silverwolf82587

*just a pain...*

sorry to butt in but
i am having the same problems that charlotte is having...

i cant ping my network externaly it just times out.
i cant remotely connect to it.
windows firewall has the exception of RDP with the default port 3389
my router has port forwarding 3389 sent to my pc and it is enabled
my pc allows for remotely connecting
i have my gatway ip address
my username and password

i have norton anti-virus pro 2004 - does that have a firewall?
but i get an error message about the client computer.

is there anything im missing?

hopefully this will help us both...

thanx...


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## Charlotte

Hi

I tried network tools but got the following:

2 Timed out Timed out Timed out - 
3 Timed out Timed out Timed out - 
4 Timed out Timed out Timed out - 
5 Timed out Timed out Timed out - 

Trace aborted.


Silverwolf - how did u do these two bits?

windows firewall has the exception of RDP with the default port 3389
my router has port forwarding 3389 sent to my pc and it is enabled


Thanks Charlotte


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## Charlotte

What is RDT please?

Thanks


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## johnwill

RDT - Remote DeskTop. I make my own abbreviations. :smile:

The fact that you timeout pinging the location is the very problem we're trying to solve. You'll have to be able to ping the location from the Internet, or you'll probably never get any farther.

I think I need to know EXACTLY what equipment you have at this location. Make/model of the modem, router, Windows version and patch level.


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## johnwill

silverwolf82587 said:


> sorry to butt in but...


Please don't start discussing two problems in one thread, it makes it very difficult to keep the debugging steps straight. You're welcome to read along, and even offer suggestions, but if you want to discuss your problem, we'll do it in a separate thread.


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## silverwolf82587

yep sorry....

but this might help charlotte and i...
my friend which can remotely connect to his pc showed me his router setup his is also a linksys and where it says your internet connection type... his is set at PPPoE... mine is set to obatain it automatically...

i dont know if it makes a difference but i will try it....


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## silverwolf82587

nope nevermind my pc couldnt even access the internet after i specified that.


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## johnwill

The WAN settings MUST match the type of service you have. If you have any internet connectivity through the router, you have to have those setup correctly.


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## Terrister

You must have a public ip address to be able to do this. If your ISP gives you a ip address that starts with 10. it will not work. If you are unsure about the type of address, post the 1st three parts here or call your ISP.

If you do have a public address, then the problem will be in your router or firewall setup.


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## silverwolf82587

*Yeah!*

hey charlotte ive fixed my problem...

my dsl modem has a built in router n firewall...
i thought it was just a modem
and then i had a linksys router and firewall...

i set up my linksys router correctly after all this time...
but i never actually made it to the linksys...
just to my modem.
i never configed that firewall...
i turned my modem into a bridge... to get to your modem page if you are using one type in 192.168.254.254 in your browser.
login and switch it to bridge...
now i only have one firewall...

tell me if that solves your problem also...


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## jimroot

*Possiblly a new bug or feature?*

Recently I have noticed XP machines in the office where RDT does not work and all the exceptions are correct for the firewall. Turn the XP firewall off and it works. I came to this thread searching for why this has happened. Possibly a new MS update that has disabled this on purpose or accident?


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## jimroot

*Found my fix*

For those that might have the same problem as me, I found this article helpful.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;840634

I used the following command to open the port

"netsh firewall add portopening TCP 3389 RDP"


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## janettfung

cant open the above link....


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## 2xg

*janettfung* - If you need assistance please create your own Thread.


janettfung said:


> cant open the above link....


This is a 2005 Thread and need be Closed now.


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