Hi There,

I'm trying to use remote desktop to access my home computer from work. When I try to access it using my dynamic DNS address it times out and I can never find or connect to my computer. When I ask a friend to try and login to my computer from their home, it works fine. So my question is either a) How do I fix this? or b) What could be stuffing this up?

Thanks a heap.

Re: Remote Desktop

From your description, it's clear that your home computer connects to the internet by a modem not through a router.

The friend, the one who succeeded in connecting to your home computer, he/she also connects to the internet the same way, through a modem, not a router, don't they?

But at work the computer on your desk doesn't connect directly to the internet, it goes through the company's router and high speed connection doesn't it?

Re: Remote Desktop

Have a chat to your Systems Administrator. Chances are there are policies in place to prevent such unauthorised activities.

Chris B

Re: Remote Desktop

Hi Gordon,

Thanks for your response. In regards to internet connection types, at home, I am connected to a router which then connects to Telstra ADSL. The friend, connected to my computer using the same method. At work, it would most probably go through the company's servers and high speed connection.

If you can provide an answer to my original question that would be great.

Paul.

Re: Remote Desktop

Hi

No matter what connection you have at work unless you are the systems administrator you will not be able to do this at work. You probably don't have the permissions to set this up. Depending on your work setup your administrator will have to setup your work desktop and adjust the companies's router (open up ports etc). Best to talk to them as they will have access to do this.

Neville Sim

Re: Remote Desktop

Hi Paul, hopefully I can clarify a few things for you.

First of all, when you say your home computer is connected via a router to telstra ADSL... is this router independent of the ADSL modem and you installed it, or is it the only device between your computer and the phone socket? If it is the latter, it is not essentially acting as the router Gordon was suggesting. I believe Gordon was referring to common SOHO routers that have NAT firewalls in them, which can prohibit externally sourced traffic such as Remote Desktop. In fact it would've requried extra configuration for Remote Desktop to work at all, and since you did get it to work via your mate's computer, we'll assume it is just acting as a modem for now.

What Gordon was implying is that the modem at your house, and the similar one at your mate's place, allow open communication to pass both ways. That is, everything that is sent to the IP address will go to your computer for it to deal with. If you have no firewall installed, this can be a strong security risk. However at work, it is likely that they have implemented high security firewalls to protect from intrusions. In doing so, they block all activity that wouldn't be commonly used by users of the network. Thus, when your remote desktop client attempts to connect to your home computer, it is likely the company's security will stop any communication between the two computers because it is not common traffic.

If it is necessary for you to utilise remote desktop from work, I suggest you talk to your network administrators as Chris suggested.

In future, when using a support forum, try not to repeatedly ask for a solution; the questions from Gordon were to assertain your situation and just because he didn't give an answer straight away doesn't mean he isn't working on it. Sometimes questions can take a couple of replies to answer.

I hope this helps with your understanding.

Ollie.

Re: Remote Desktop

Hi,

I have been trying to do the same thing.

The problem for me seems to be that the work place has the router controls set to prevent this type of access. For example, I cannot ping my ISP from the laptop at work. They did set me up to have a VPN conection to the Windows 2000 server at work but not to my laptop at work which is where all the files that I need are stored.

For security reasons, the administrator is reluctant to allow the access that I think would enable me to connect from home to the work laptop or from work to my home pc. I suspect that you will find that you have the same restriction.

Regards

Re: Remote Desktop

Hi Paul,

First I would recommend on "remote administrator". Much better.

Do you use no-ip.com?