Remote Desktop To Windows Machine

[SChaput]

I am currently connecting to my XP machine just fine through the Remote Desktop application on my mac. However, I'm wondering if when these two computers are not on the same network, will i still be able to remote into my XP machine, from, across the state for instance?
I feel like i have tried the above before, but have not been able to do it. Could a failed attempt be chalked up to my Universities network and the restrictions they put on outgoing connections?
Thanks!

 

[sl1200mk2]

Could a failed attempt be chalked up to my Universities network and the restrictions they put on outgoing connections?

Absolutely. They are most likely blocking incoming connections for that. You might want to try something like this which is free and you'll probably have much better success: https://secure.logmein.com/

I would totally just use Remote Desktop if you could, but this is almost as good.

Regards,

Wayne

 

[Matek]

I feel like i have tried the above before, but have not been able to do it. Could a failed attempt be chalked up to my Universities network and the restrictions they put on outgoing connections?

Absolutely. They are most likely blocking incoming connections for that. You might want to try something like this which is free and you'll probably have much better success: https://secure.logmein.com/

You're talking about two different things. If I understood correctly, you have a box at home and you want to connect to it from your university. In this case, your university would have to be blocking your outgoing connections to prevent you from doing that - while that is technically possible, it is not done often. Incoming connections are the ones that are causing most security problems on networks and they are the ones that usually get the most attention. If you know anyone who has a box he can connect to with Remote Desktop, ask them to try it from your uni network to test this theory.

A much more plausible option is that your home network isn't properly configured to let incoming connections in. Is your home machine directly connected to the internet (with its own external IP) or are you using a router to connect several computers at once? If the latter is the case, did you configure ports for Remote Desktop to be forwarded to the machine you want to connect to from outside? Are you sure firewalls on your router and the machine itself aren't blocking these connections?

 

[sl1200mk2]

You're talking about two different things. If I understood correctly, you have a box at home and you want to connect to it from your university. In this case, your university would have to be blocking your outgoing connections to prevent you from doing that - while that is technically possible, it is not done often. Incoming connections are the ones that are causing most security problems on networks and they are the ones that usually get the most attention. If you know anyone who has a box he can connect to with Remote Desktop, ask them to try it from your uni network to test this theory.

A much more plausible option is that your home network isn't properly configured to let incoming connections in. Is your home machine directly connected to the internet (with its own external IP) or are you using a router to connect several computers at once? If the latter is the case, did you configure ports for Remote Desktop to be forwarded to the machine you want to connect to from outside? Are you sure firewalls on your router and the machine itself aren't blocking these connections?

I think I read through too quickly, but going through it a 2nd time a service like LogMeIn (Hamachi) still makes a lot of sense if someone doesn't want to mess with settings. It really is zero network configuration and automatically works through any firewall, NAT or port forwarding issues since the host is already communicating with the outside VPN service pre establishing the connection.