Hey, I was wondering how can I connect to my Laptop Using Remote Desktop Connection from outside my Network. I already opened the 3389 port for TCP on my router and forwarded it to my local laptop's ip. It still doesnt work, I've tried to disable my SP2 Firewall, but still the same thing. Do I need to open more ports for this service? thank you,

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/mobility/default.mspx

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/mobility/default.mspx provides just about anything one would want to know about Remote Desktop except what the OP is asking. How do you use Remote Desktop from a remote location? If the answer is within the MS page can you point me and the OP to it? I too would very much like to see some written instructions on the subject from MS. Thanks, Bryan

From MS's 70-290 book PUBLISHED BY Microsoft Press A Division of Microsoft Corporation One Microsoft Way Redmond, Washington 98052-6399 Copyright © 2004 by Microsoft Corporation " Terminal Services Troubleshooting When using Remote Desktop for Administration, you are creating a connection to a server’s console. There are several potential causes of failed connections or problematic sessions: ■ Network failures Errors in standard TCP/IP networking can cause a Remote Desktop connection to fail or be interrupted. If DNS is not functioning, a client may not be able to locate the server by name. If routing is not functioning, or the Terminal Services port (by default, port 3389) misconfigured on either the client or the server, the connection will not be established. 2-16 Chapter 2 Administering Microsoft Windows Server 2003 ■ Credentials Users must belong to the Administrators or Remote Desktop Users group to successfully connect to the server using Remote Desktop for Administration. ■ Policy Domain controllers will only allow connections via Remote Desktop to administrators. You must configure the domain controller security policy to allow connections for all other remote user connections. ■ Too many concurrent connections If sessions have been disconnected with-out being logged off, the server may consider its concurrent connection limit reached even though there are not two human users connected at the time. An administrator might, for example, close a remote session without logging off. If two more administrators attempt to connect to the server, only one will be allowed to connect before the limit of two concurrent connections is reached. See Also For more on Terminal Services and the latest developments in Remote Desktop client functionality, see http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet /prodtechnol/windowsserver2003/proddocs standard/sag_Server_Trouble_Topnode.asp. " We must assume that you have allowed RDP in the laptop first. Pretty sure I read that one of the routers must have UPNP enabled. Not sure about that. So, you need to be able to connect via IP address or DNS name. Can you? An easy way to use RDP is across MS's Messenger system or even by email if you can't get it going anyother way. See also help and support pages in XP while connected to the internet. You will get more help pages that way.

I personally have never tried it but here is the scenario that I would enjoy reading how to properly connect: Client PC-->Internet-->Router(Nat)-->Host PC Let's say the router's (NAT) public IP address is 10.10.10.100 with 192.168.1.1 on the network side and the host's IP is 192.168.1.2 How does the client PC connect to the Host PC's private IP address? Client PC goes for IP 10.10.10.100; Firewall(NAT) set to forward port 3389 and it finds the host PC on it's own??? Logically (but only in theory) it would be good if the client PC could go to: 10.10.10.100:3389:192.168.1.2 to access the host. What's missing here besides my knowledge? Bryan

See http://computing.net/windows2000/wwwboard/forum/62965.html as it has the link to the answers. It's actually too easy. Regards, Bryan