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Windows Remote Desktop -HowTo-
Remote Desktop technology in Windows XP Professional gives you full access to your office computer and all your data and programs via the Internet or a corporate network—when you're away from your desk.
When you connect to your computer at work, Remote Desktop automatically locks that computer so no one else can access your applications and files while you are gone. When you come back to your computer at work, you can unlock it with an easy keystroke (CTRL+ALT+DEL).
Remote Desktop makes a variety of scenarios possible, such as:
• Working from home: Access work in progress on your office computer from home, including full access to all local and remote devices.
• Collaborating: Bring your computer to a colleague's office to debug some code, update a slide presentation, or proofread a document.
• Sharing a console: Allow multiple users to maintain separate program and configuration sessions on a single computer, such as a teller station or a sales desk.
The Remote Desktop feature is not available in Windows XP Home Edition. However, a computer running Windows XP Home Edition, or any version since Windows 95, can use the client software and Internet access to remotely control a computer that runs Windows XP Professional with Remote Desktop enabled. The client software is available on the installation CD for Windows XP Professional and Windows XP Home Edition.
This howto will guide you on setting up remote desktop on your Windows XP Professional machine on your LAN and over the Internet.
Step 1: Enabling RDC server
Right click on the “My Computer” icon on your desktop and select Properties or if you don't have the icon you can go to Control Panel>System. Select the Remote tab. On the Remote Desktop section, click the “Allow users to connect remotely to this computer” check box.
Click Select Remote Users button, and then click Add. YouÂ’ll get a Select User dialog box. Click on Advanced button and then Find Now. YouÂ’ll get a listing of all local users on your computer, go ahead and select the account you would like to use for logging into this machine. Make sure the account is password protected already. Once you have highlighted the account, just select OK, then OK again to close the box and back to the remote desktop user box. You can add as many users as you want. Go ahead and click OK and OK again to save the setting.
Now that you have the server running, you want to test this out on your LAN side first.
Before proceeding to step 2, lets write down the internal IP address of the RDC server first, this will help out on the next steps. Go to Start>Run>cmd and type in ipconfig
*You can also right click on your network card and select status>support to find the IP address.
Write that IP down
Now at this point you should disable or configured any firewall to allow RDC.
Step 2: Connecting to the RDC server.
On another machine, like Windows XP, open up the client by going to Start>Run>mstsc.exe
Or Start>All Programs>Accessories>Communications>Remote Desktop
(If you are on another machine beside XP, like 2000 or earlier). You need to download the client at
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/tools/rdclientdl.mspx
Once you get the client up
Click on Option>> to expand the client for more options. Put in the IP address of the RDC server in the Computer field that you wrote down in Step 1, Put in the user and password you added in Step 1. Domain is optional. If you want a faster connection or higher visual you can configured the Display tab and Experience tab to your liking.
Click connect, and you should be connected to the RDC server.
That's it for the RDC server and client application on the LAN.
Windows Remote Desktop over the Internet.
There are two ways to do this, and thatÂ’s using the RDC client or the web browser. The RDC client is pretty easy. You just need to forward TCP and UDP port 3389 on your router to the internal IP address of the RDC server (assuming you use a router).
Please go to www.portforward.com and select your routerÂ’s model and Remote Desktop. It should guide you step by step. If your router isnÂ’t listed on their database please refer to your manual or online resources before asking for help.
Then on the connection that the RDC server is on, go to http://www.whatismyipaddress.com/ to get its external IP, use this IP instead of the one in Step 1. Remember the differences between internal IP and external IP. Internal is use on your LAN, while the external is over the Internet.
Using Remote Desktop Web Connection allows you to connect to the RDC server using IE 6 or later with ActiveX enable. This is useful if you can not install the RDC client on the computer you are willing to use to connect to your RDC server, instead you can use IE which pretty much come default with the latest Windows.
Step 1: Installing IIS on the RDC server
This requires you to install IIS on the RDC server (the XP Pro machine that already has RDC enable).
Go to Control Panel> Add or Remove Programs, and then click Add/Remove Windows Components.
Click Internet Information Services, and then click Details.
In the Subcomponents of World Wide Web Service list, select the Remote Desktop Web Connection check box, and then click OK.
In the Windows Components Wizard, click Next. Click Finish when the wizard has completed.
Before we start using IIS, letÂ’s check for any updates first. Stop the service by going to the Start menu>Run and type Net Stop w3svc and click OK. Now go to the Microsoft update website and check for any updates. After thatÂ’s done you can enable it back, the command is Net Start w3svc.
By default IIS use port 80, we are going to change this for security reason and to bypass ISP that often filter port 80.
Go to Control Panel>Administrative Tools and double-click Internet Information Services.
In the ISS snap-in, expand your computer name, expand Web Sites, right-click Default Web Site, and then click Properties.
On the Web Site tab, change the value for TCP Port to 8080 or any port beside 80. Just remember to use the port that isnÂ’t already in use.
*I suggest using 8080 as of now, you can always change it later.
Click OK to save and exit the Internet Information Services snap-in
Now that we got IIS up and running and the default port changed, we need to download the web content that will be use to display the login page.
Go here http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/tools/rdwebconn.mspx
Download it. When setup asks where would you like to place the sample web pages directory? enter C:\Windows\Web\TSWeb. Click OK. If the TsWeb folder does not exist, setup will ask if you want to create it. Click Yes.
*Assuming C: is the default drive where your Windows folder is located.
Now test it on the RDC server just for good measurement, just to make sure itÂ’s up and running. Open up IE 6 or later. Type in http://localhost:8080/tsweb/default.htm
This should work right away. If not, you might have firewall problem. If it works than itÂ’s time to move on to the router.
Step 2: Port-forwarding the router.
As describe in the earlier step, you just go to www.portfoward.com and select your router and Remote Desktop. Instead of forwarding the TCP & UDP port 3389 you will forward the port 8080 to the internal IP address of your RDC server. Remember what I said about the internal and external and how to find those IP addresses.
Step 3: Connecting on the client side.
Open up IE 6 or later and put in http://external_IP:8080/tsweb/default.htm
You must always append the port number :8080 or whatever you change ISS to. Because by default the web browser wants to connect to port 80, but in our case we donÂ’t want that by default.
Remember from the previous step on how to obtain the external IP address of the RDC server. HereÂ’s an example
http://66.125.66.34:8080/tsweb/default.htm
Additional Information:
*IIS service starts up automatically by default. If you want to know if the service is running. Open up command prompt (Start>Run>cmd) and type netstat -an and look for 0.0.0.0:8080
To disable it from starting automatically, just go to Start>Run>services.msc and locate World Wide Web Publishing, double click it and change startup type to manual and click disable.
Do a netstat -an again and it should be gone.
*Most likely you have a dynamic IP, which changes often. If you are tired of finding out this external IP, you can register with a dynamic DNS service which will give you a domain name that will be much easier for you to remember.
Visit http://www.technopagan.org/dynamic/ for more information.
Remote Desktop technology in Windows XP Professional gives you full access to your office computer and all your data and programs via the Internet or a corporate network—when you're away from your desk.
When you connect to your computer at work, Remote Desktop automatically locks that computer so no one else can access your applications and files while you are gone. When you come back to your computer at work, you can unlock it with an easy keystroke (CTRL+ALT+DEL).
Remote Desktop makes a variety of scenarios possible, such as:
• Working from home: Access work in progress on your office computer from home, including full access to all local and remote devices.
• Collaborating: Bring your computer to a colleague's office to debug some code, update a slide presentation, or proofread a document.
• Sharing a console: Allow multiple users to maintain separate program and configuration sessions on a single computer, such as a teller station or a sales desk.
The Remote Desktop feature is not available in Windows XP Home Edition. However, a computer running Windows XP Home Edition, or any version since Windows 95, can use the client software and Internet access to remotely control a computer that runs Windows XP Professional with Remote Desktop enabled. The client software is available on the installation CD for Windows XP Professional and Windows XP Home Edition.
This howto will guide you on setting up remote desktop on your Windows XP Professional machine on your LAN and over the Internet.
Step 1: Enabling RDC server
Right click on the “My Computer” icon on your desktop and select Properties or if you don't have the icon you can go to Control Panel>System. Select the Remote tab. On the Remote Desktop section, click the “Allow users to connect remotely to this computer” check box.
Click Select Remote Users button, and then click Add. YouÂ’ll get a Select User dialog box. Click on Advanced button and then Find Now. YouÂ’ll get a listing of all local users on your computer, go ahead and select the account you would like to use for logging into this machine. Make sure the account is password protected already. Once you have highlighted the account, just select OK, then OK again to close the box and back to the remote desktop user box. You can add as many users as you want. Go ahead and click OK and OK again to save the setting.
Now that you have the server running, you want to test this out on your LAN side first.
Before proceeding to step 2, lets write down the internal IP address of the RDC server first, this will help out on the next steps. Go to Start>Run>cmd and type in ipconfig
*You can also right click on your network card and select status>support to find the IP address.
Write that IP down
Now at this point you should disable or configured any firewall to allow RDC.
Step 2: Connecting to the RDC server.
On another machine, like Windows XP, open up the client by going to Start>Run>mstsc.exe
Or Start>All Programs>Accessories>Communications>Remote Desktop
(If you are on another machine beside XP, like 2000 or earlier). You need to download the client at
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/tools/rdclientdl.mspx
Once you get the client up
Click on Option>> to expand the client for more options. Put in the IP address of the RDC server in the Computer field that you wrote down in Step 1, Put in the user and password you added in Step 1. Domain is optional. If you want a faster connection or higher visual you can configured the Display tab and Experience tab to your liking.
Click connect, and you should be connected to the RDC server.
That's it for the RDC server and client application on the LAN.
Windows Remote Desktop over the Internet.
There are two ways to do this, and thatÂ’s using the RDC client or the web browser. The RDC client is pretty easy. You just need to forward TCP and UDP port 3389 on your router to the internal IP address of the RDC server (assuming you use a router).
Please go to www.portforward.com and select your routerÂ’s model and Remote Desktop. It should guide you step by step. If your router isnÂ’t listed on their database please refer to your manual or online resources before asking for help.
Then on the connection that the RDC server is on, go to http://www.whatismyipaddress.com/ to get its external IP, use this IP instead of the one in Step 1. Remember the differences between internal IP and external IP. Internal is use on your LAN, while the external is over the Internet.
Using Remote Desktop Web Connection allows you to connect to the RDC server using IE 6 or later with ActiveX enable. This is useful if you can not install the RDC client on the computer you are willing to use to connect to your RDC server, instead you can use IE which pretty much come default with the latest Windows.
Step 1: Installing IIS on the RDC server
This requires you to install IIS on the RDC server (the XP Pro machine that already has RDC enable).
Go to Control Panel> Add or Remove Programs, and then click Add/Remove Windows Components.
Click Internet Information Services, and then click Details.
In the Subcomponents of World Wide Web Service list, select the Remote Desktop Web Connection check box, and then click OK.
In the Windows Components Wizard, click Next. Click Finish when the wizard has completed.
Before we start using IIS, letÂ’s check for any updates first. Stop the service by going to the Start menu>Run and type Net Stop w3svc and click OK. Now go to the Microsoft update website and check for any updates. After thatÂ’s done you can enable it back, the command is Net Start w3svc.
By default IIS use port 80, we are going to change this for security reason and to bypass ISP that often filter port 80.
Go to Control Panel>Administrative Tools and double-click Internet Information Services.
In the ISS snap-in, expand your computer name, expand Web Sites, right-click Default Web Site, and then click Properties.
On the Web Site tab, change the value for TCP Port to 8080 or any port beside 80. Just remember to use the port that isnÂ’t already in use.
*I suggest using 8080 as of now, you can always change it later.
Click OK to save and exit the Internet Information Services snap-in
Now that we got IIS up and running and the default port changed, we need to download the web content that will be use to display the login page.
Go here http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/tools/rdwebconn.mspx
Download it. When setup asks where would you like to place the sample web pages directory? enter C:\Windows\Web\TSWeb. Click OK. If the TsWeb folder does not exist, setup will ask if you want to create it. Click Yes.
*Assuming C: is the default drive where your Windows folder is located.
Now test it on the RDC server just for good measurement, just to make sure itÂ’s up and running. Open up IE 6 or later. Type in http://localhost:8080/tsweb/default.htm
This should work right away. If not, you might have firewall problem. If it works than itÂ’s time to move on to the router.
Step 2: Port-forwarding the router.
As describe in the earlier step, you just go to www.portfoward.com and select your router and Remote Desktop. Instead of forwarding the TCP & UDP port 3389 you will forward the port 8080 to the internal IP address of your RDC server. Remember what I said about the internal and external and how to find those IP addresses.
Step 3: Connecting on the client side.
Open up IE 6 or later and put in http://external_IP:8080/tsweb/default.htm
You must always append the port number :8080 or whatever you change ISS to. Because by default the web browser wants to connect to port 80, but in our case we donÂ’t want that by default.
Remember from the previous step on how to obtain the external IP address of the RDC server. HereÂ’s an example
http://66.125.66.34:8080/tsweb/default.htm
Additional Information:
*IIS service starts up automatically by default. If you want to know if the service is running. Open up command prompt (Start>Run>cmd) and type netstat -an and look for 0.0.0.0:8080
To disable it from starting automatically, just go to Start>Run>services.msc and locate World Wide Web Publishing, double click it and change startup type to manual and click disable.
Do a netstat -an again and it should be gone.
*Most likely you have a dynamic IP, which changes often. If you are tired of finding out this external IP, you can register with a dynamic DNS service which will give you a domain name that will be much easier for you to remember.
Visit http://www.technopagan.org/dynamic/ for more information.
