Understanding RDP/VNC issues

[xheathen]

Hi everyone. Hopefully this it the right place to post this. I've been having woes getting any kind of remote desktop solution to work and I think I came upon a breakthrough that ended up leading to another critical question.

I've been attempting to use RDP Lite but I still couldn't get connected. Until I connected to my internal wifi network. Then BOOM it's now allowing me to connect perfectly.

I'm no network genius, so please bear with my ignorance, but what I'm seeing on doing some research is that my attempts to access my computer outside my immediate wifi network means I'm running into my router's IP (WAN IP) instead of my computer's LAN IP.

I thought that maybe using one of these other apps might bypass the issue, so I went and installed the Splashtop app for $2. Downloaded the program for Win7 and tried it. Again, I can only run within my wifi network, but not outside it. I was hoping somehow Splashtop's program would make the IP available.

So that leaves me in a place where I think I need to setup an IP or port forward on my router so that these programs know how to get to my computer once they hit my WAN IP. But I'm not totally sure how to do this. I spent about 2 hours going through sites looking for an idea of how to configure the forward. I can get into my router, but I'm just not connecting on how to do it. I have a cable modem providing internet through a Linksys WRT 54GL that is running DD WRT mini firmware that then provides internet to our local computers.

Just as another piece of info, I'm connecting through a 3G wifi modem most of the time when I'm in the field.

 

[ClutchThese]

dyndns

host your IP and use that for RDP

 

[xheathen]

I'm still running into the problem that once I use DynDNS, it's still running into my router's IP and it still has no idea what my work station. So, like I know what my workstation IP is, but DynDNS doesn't seem capable of connecting to the routers ip -> my workstation's IP.

I think DynDNS would work if your computer was connected from the cable modem right into the machine itself.

Or am I just grossly missing something?

 

[panzer06]

I'm still running into the problem that once I use DynDNS, it's still running into my router's IP and it still has no idea what my work station. So, like I know what my workstation IP is, but DynDNS doesn't seem capable of connecting to the routers ip -> my workstation's IP.

I think DynDNS would work if your computer was connected from the cable modem right into the machine itself.

Or am I just grossly missing something?

Either fwd RDP traffic using the router admin. Read the manual re opening ports and application support.

Or put you mac in the dmz (risky).

You router should allow one device to be specified as the wan facing dmz device.

Cheers,

 

[firewood]

If you are not expert at network configuration for RDP/VNC, buy one of the apps that will set up the connection for you. Wyse PocketCloud Pro and LogMeIn Ignition are a two examples.