Port Forwarding to 2 computers using Apple Remote Desktop

[steevg]

Hi Guys,

I'm hoping someone can at least help me understand the problem I'm having with ARD and 2 computers on my home network. I'm not a total newbie, but acronyms like PPoE, and such will confuse me.

Scenario:
For months I've been port forwarding to ARD at home while working away, and it's been working fine. Now the wife wants me to troubleshoot her machine while I'm away too (argh).

So I'm looking for a way to connect to both my own home machine, AND (now) her's too using Apple Remote Desktop 3.5

I have a D-Link G604-T which is working fine with just the one machine, but I don't seem to be able to get it working with the other machine. Ive read about setting up 5901 ports etc, but don't really understand the principle of what needs to be done.

Guidance or advice for a relative non-technophobe most gratefully received please.

 

[steevg]

Any help much appreciated !

Thanks

 

[neal5]

Is her computer, and the computer you have remote acces to in the same network? (Behind the same router?).

Because if you have access to the network through the same port, all you have to do change the IP to the IP of your wife's computer.

Also it is important that she has an ARD client installed on her computer, or she enables screen sharing, then you could get VNC access to the computer with her login credentials.

Good luck.

 

[steevg]

Hi, thanks for your reply.

Yes the two computers are connected to the same wireless network (a home network).

I'm not sure what you mean by . . . .

Because if you have access to the network through the same port, all you have to do change the IP to the IP of your wife's computer.

My problem is that I need to be able to connect to both of them while I'm away from home. If I change the IP's around while I'm at home, I still won't be able to connect to the other - surely?

Regarding VPN's, never had anything to do with these at all, but she does have ARD installed on her computer - the full package - is this what you'd regard as the "Client"?

Would you be able to explain how to setup a VPN on her machine for this to work?

Thanks

 

[Arrowk127]

Not really familiar with ard but if you can't change the port that it uses a workaround might be to remote into your computer at home and then from that machine connect to hers. Still not completely sure if that would work since I don't have any experience with ard. Just an idea though.

 

[BrianBaughn]

You should put the VPN on a computer that will be ON all of the time. Do a search to learn the ins & outs of using ARD through a VPN.

iVPN from MacServe is an extremely easy way to get a VPN running on a Mac. The only thing else you'll need is to set up proper port forwarding on your router.

 

[26139]

One solution...

While I never figured out how to do exactly what you're hoping to do, I can say that using screen sharing to access the 'other' computer you're accessing with ARD works.

It's a bit slow, but it's totally usable for small things.

So yes, I'm talking about your computer to your home computer (ARD) and then your home computer to hers (Screen Sharing).

 

[steevg]

Thanks for all the feedback guys, very much appreciated.

I had some further response from another guy elsewhere, and he's suggesting that by changing the Remote Management, and Screen sharing port assignments in the Data Entry Screen area of ARD for the wife's machine, I may be able to setup port forwarding to her internal static IP via that.

So I've changed the 5900 to 5901, and 3283 to 3284 (22 for ssh still the same).

Having a few issue with my G606-T (D-Link_ holding the settings though.

The theory sounds good, but I'll let you know if it works in practice.

Cheers

 

[desertman]

I would love to hear how this could actually work without VPN. I doubt it is possible.

Let's say your external ip address is 123.456.789. That means under this address you reach the router and you have to put this address into ARD on the admin side in order to reach any computer behind the router - correct?

Now let's say the internal ip addresses of your two computers behind the router are 192.168.1.10 and 192.168.1.20. The ARD client (that part of ARD that is used on the two computers behind the router) uses port 3283 for remote management and port 5900 for screen sharing - and I never heard or read that these ports can be changed for the CLIENT computers.

To control a single computer behind a router "you need to set the router to forward TCP and UDP ports 3283 and 5900 to the client computer you wish to access" (this is a quote from the ARD manual). Now, if both client computers can only use the same ports 3283 and 5900 for ARD how can it be possible to create separate port forwarding to both of them with their different internal ip addresses? I think that cannot be done - and I would be glad to learn otherwise.

I also do not understand exactly how this would have to be done "via VPN". Can somebody explain this more in detail? Thanks.

To the original poster: A possible way around would be to use TeamViewer for working on your wife's computer. TeamViewer is free for personal use and works very well (almost as good as ARD). I use ARD when possible and TeamViewer in many other cases. If using "TeamViewer QuickSupport" on your wife's computer she has to give you always a newly generated password for each support session. If using "TeamViewer Host" on your wife's computer it can be set up in a way that gives you even unattended access to this computer.

Greetings - desertman

 

[steevg]

Hi Desertman,

thanks for your contribution to the post, and I'd also like to know how it may be done.

The info I have at the moment (though no able to get it working yet due to problems with the darn router - D-Link G604-T - won't hold the portforwarding info) is, that the screen sharing and remote management ports can be set in the "data entry screen" of ARD. Once these have been changed, I understand that the new ports may then be configured in the router to match.

However, I'm not a techie, and am still trying to find out which of the machines I need to reconfigure the port info to ensure it gets through. I'm assuming i need to change the ports in the "Data Entry screen" on the machine I'm using to access the 2nd home machine (a MBP), but I can't seem to get to the "edit" button - whereas I can on the 2nd home machine.

I understand the concept, but not the technical "hands on" issues yet. I'll post back when I have more info.

(PS: Is it OK, to post a link to another forum where I'm getting this info?)

 

[desertman]

... the screen sharing and remote management ports can be set in the "data entry screen" of ARD.

Whenever you add a computer to the list of remote computers in ARD on the admin computer (= your "travel" computer) you can change the default ports for remote management (3283) and screen sharing (5900). I think it is not possible to do this on the client computers (= your home computer and your wife's computer).

Maybe it is possible to add two computers to the list with the same ip address and use port 3283 for one computer and port 3284 for the other computer and then set the port forwarding in the router to forward 3283 to computer #1 and 3284 to computer #2. Did you try that?

 

[steevg]

I'm trying that at present, but i have two issues as I'm away from home at present:

1. The wife keeps switching computer 2 (Powerbook) off !
2. When I do manage to "see" her machine, I'm not sure where the "data entry screen" is, and how to access it - just getting used to ARD.

But the reasoning seems good, as it should allocate access via the newly assigned ports.
I'm struggling to understand the logic though:

If I re-assign these ports in ARD on my "Travel" computer (MBP - & I'm using "No-IP" to create the dynamic host on the home computers as I don't have a static IP for the home IP address), and it accesses the correct ports in ARD on machine #2, how does ARD access screen sharing and remote management on #2? I'm presuming ports 5900 & 3283 are only ARD ports which link internally to these functions?