My home computer has XP pro, and I can use remote desktop without any problems inside of my network. This has been tested using my laptop, XP home, through a wireless connection. My router is a Linksys WRT54GS, with the latest firmware. When I try to connect from a location outside of my network, I get to the XP remote desktop screen, select the server, but the connection does not complete. It times out. I think everything is set up correctly on the router, but am not sure. Since remote desktop works inside my home network, I think it is a problem on the router. From my understanding two ports need to be open. Microsoft's site indicates port 3389 is required by XP and the other port can be any port in the range of 1000 to 65535. I got these directions from http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/networking/expert/northrup_03may16.mspx. Can anyone make any suggestions?

You only need to have port 3389 forwarded in your router to the machine you want to connect to. The article you referenced was using remote desktop with the web client. Unless you are running a web server with the appropriate files and configuration that is not neccessary. you're not too clear here "When I try to connect from a location outside of my network, I get to the XP remote desktop screen, select the server, but the connection does not complete." If you are getting a login screen, then the client is reaching the host (your home computer). Are you only trying to connect from one location from outside your home network (such as work)? Pehaps there is some filtering on that end. If you are not getting the login screen then the client is not reaching the host. Are you entering the PUBLIC IP for your home network? this would be the WAN IP in the router. If you can't find it in your router settings, you can find it by using one of your home computer and going to whatismyip.com Depending on your ISP, your IP could be static or dynamic. If it is dynamic it can change from time to time. However I have a dynamic IP on a cable connection and it alsmost never changes. But, if you find that to be a problem you can set up a dynamic domain name with a service such as no-ip.com Michael J

Thank you Michael, To clearify, I get to the Windows remote desktop screen by entering xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:pppp/tsweb/ I am then at a Windows remote desktop screen where it asks for the server name. Entering the server name at this point did not work at all, but if I enter the local IP address of my server then I receive a time out. Matt

OK, so you are using the web version of remote desktop? Because there is no "server Name" field for the Windows client, but I see that there is one for the web client. So sonce you can access the web page it seems your web server is working fine. Since you are trying to connect to the same computer that the web server is running on, you don't need to enter a server name. Try that. Also, double check that Remote Desktop is enabled. That's all I can think of. Good luck. Michael J