Remote desktop over the net

www.portforward.com will probably help here

I dont know if your router will be similar to my old d-link but on mine i have to configure hte port forwarding tab AND the firewall rules tab. doing one without the other just stops ports being forwarded lol
 
Typically you need to add a port first within services.
Then you use the port forwarding tab to sent port 3389 to the computer you will be accessing.
If you have a static IP from your ISP you can just use that, but if you are on dynamic IP, you need to use a service such as dyndns in order to be able to connect when your IP address changes.
 
The way I do this is just type my internal IP address of the PC I want to connect to in the DMZ box on my Router then use noip.info to set my External IP address up to a URL and check the box in Vista System Properties/Advanced system settings/Remote for Remote Desktop.
 
getting tired now

Just added xxxx.homeunix.com to remote desktop then asked me for user name then asked for credentials.Added credentials and got in......just wondering though is this because I am on a lan at the moment..


Thanks for the help people.
 
I use VNC for this.. BUT with one major issue. I run Media Centre on the pc i am connecting to but when i log in media centre gets messed up and no longer works with a pc restart.

Anyone know if any of this other apps dont do that? I think its related to the color depth changing.
 
Install Hamachi (the free version) on your computer and your dads computer. Start Hamachi and then create a new Hamachi VPN network and join it on both computers.

This creates a private network connection between the 2 pc's and remote desktop connection should work over internet without all that bloody port forwarding nonsense.
 
If it worked with the xxxx.homeunix.com then the dyndns step appears to be working and it resolved your external IP. What happened then depends on how you router is setup - as long as you've got your desktop behind the NAT firewall (and not in the DMZ which would be a bad idea) then it's looking promising.
From a security point of view, be aware that opening up ports like this allows anyone to have a pop at connecting to your pc. When I have used it I took a number of precautions:
1. limit the users that can logon using RDP, and use strong passwords
2. enable event logging to include logon attempts (won't stop it but you can see if it's being attempted)
3. set a firewall rule to only allow RDP traffic from the IP address you want to connect from. In my case I was connecting from an office with a static IP, which made it easy. If you want to be able to connect from your father's, who probably has a dynamic IP, you'll have to find out and use the ranges of IPs that his ISP gives out. It won't be watertight but would keep the majority of the world out.

Also just remembered I had a bookmark to a relevant page: http://www.mobydisk.com/techres/securing_remote_desktop.html

Hope this helps
 
this is what i do.

install hamachi on your home pc, and on your laptop

this is a program, that has a login and a 'friends' list, kinda like msn

but with each friend it creates a VPN -virtual network



so you use MS remote desktop to it just like normal, you just need hamachi running on both :) it's free for home users, i've used it for years, and we have paid licences for it at work, it's very reliable

-no need to forward ports
-secure
-not limited to remote desktop, it's an actual network connection, just limited to the internet speed.


i use it for transferring multiple gigs of data over the net + remote desktop
 
Personally I'd tunnel RDP over SSH forward port 22 and use something like putty off a memory stick. You will need to install and SSH server on the target PC. Which is free and easy. Combined with dynamic DNS you should be laughing.
you tell putty to tunnel port 3389 to the destination address (dns url) and then do RDP to 127.0.0.1, putty then takes the connection and forwards it through a secure SSL tunnel to the PC at home. it's as good as VPN but much much easier
 
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