You can connect to your work computer from your home computer and have access to all of your programs, files, and network resources as though you were in front of your computer at work. You can leave programs running at work and when you get home, you will see your work computer’s desktop displayed on your home computer, with the same programs running. You will need “Remote Desktop Connection” (RDC).
RDC allows you to sit at a computer and connect to a remote computer in a different location. This is one of the many software available for making remote connections. Remote Desktop Connection is offered by Microsoft. This article is a 2 part article. In this part we will look at how to connect to a remote PC. In the second part, we will look at how to secure this connection.
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What you need for a remote connection?
- The remote computer which you want to access (let us call it as “host”) should have Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2 or Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 2
- The computer from which you want to access the remote computer (let us call it “client”) should be Windows95 or later and should have “Remote Desktop Connection” client software installed. You can download this from the Microsoft website, if not already installed.
- Access to the router configuration file to make some configurations to allow remote connection.
How to configure the host?
- Sign in with an account having administrator privileges.
- Click Start à Control Panel à Performance and Maintenance à Remote tab
- In Windows XP, select “Allow users to connect remotely to this computer” and click OK. In Windows Server 2003, select “Enable Remote Desktop on this computer” and click OK.
How to configure the router?
- Login to the router configuration file
- You need to map a port on your router to a port on the host in order to allow inbound connections to Remote Desktop on the host. This is known as port forwarding. In Linksys make routers, this is available in “Applications and Gaming” section of the configuration file. Other routers refer to port forwarding page as “Virtual Servers”. Go to this port forwarding page.
- In the Application or Description field enter “RDC”
- In the port range start and port range end, enter “3389”. This is the default port.
- In the protocol type, enter “Both” (or “TCP” if “Both” option is not available)
- Type the IP Address of the host PC.
- Now, enable this port forwarding by checking the “Enable” checkbox.
- If you have a firewall, which blocks services and programs, ensure that “Remote Desktop” service is not blocked.
How to connect from the client PC?
- Get the IP address from your ISP service provider to connect to the remote host. If this is a static IP address, it is simple as the IP address allotted to you by your ISP service provider at the time of taking the internet connection is what you need now.
- Click Start à All Programs à Accessories à Remote Desktop Connection (or you may have to go through Start à All Programs à Accessories à Communication à Remote Desktop Connection)
- In the “Computer” box, type in the IP address provided by the ISP service provider.
- Windows login screen will appear. Log into the remote host with an user account of the remote host.
- The Remote Desktop window opens, and you see the desktop settings, files, and programs that are on your host computer, which in this example is your work computer. Your host computer remains locked, and nobody can access it without a password. In addition, no one will be able to see the work you are doing remotely.
- To end the remote session, click Start à Log off
We have to keep in mind that usage of Remote Desktop Connection without implementing security measures is dangerous. In the second part of this article, which I will be writing next month, we shall see the various techniques to secure the usage of “Remote Desktop Connection”.