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Setup Remote Desktop Using DynDNS

Step 3

Open a Port in the Router’s Firewall to Allow Remote Desktop Requests

Using the address you found for the Default Gateway (mostly likely 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1) open your Internet Browser and type in the address (for example: http://192.168.1.1) If you’ve never been to this page before, you will need to find the login information for your router. If you are using a Linksys router, the default login information is to use no username and the password of “admin” (without the quotes). Consult your notes or router documentation if you don’t have access. Only you will know this.

On the Router Configuration pages, you will see many pages using names that probably won’t mean much to you. A Linksys router menu can be confusing (see picture).

You’ll see things like “NAT”, “Access Restrictions”, “Applications & Gaming”, “Port Forwarding”, etc. These probably don’t mean much to most people. That’s okay. What we are going to use is a feature called “Port Forwarding”. Most of the other features won’t be used. “Port Forwarding” is found under “Applications & Gaming” on a Linksys Router.

Linksys calls it “Port Range Forward”. On the Port Range Forward tab, you will type in a name for the application that you will be using. The Remote Desktop program is a file called “mstsc.exe” which stands for Microsoft Terminal Services Client (catchy name, right? ), so I call it “mstsc”, but you can call it whatever you like. (”remote” works well too) The port range that Remote Desktop Connection uses is 3389, so enter that in the start box and the end box. Remote Desktop Connection uses the TCP Protocol, so select that under the Protocol column. Then enter the new Static IP address in the next box, and be sure to click enable. (see picture)

You will need to save and apply changes to the router.

At this point, you have enabled Remote Desktop Connections to be accepted on your PC. You’ve also setup your router to route all incoming Remote Desktop traffic to your PC. At this point, it should work. Using your Public IP Address (not your Static IP Address) you should be able to enter the following in the Start –> Run box:

mstsc /v:your.public.ip.address

This may be your current IP Address: 38.107.191.91

But if this looks like a static IP address, (like 192.168.1.1) you’ll need to find your Public IP Address. Here’s a good place to find it: ipchicken.com or dyndns.

MSTSC will ask you for your username and password when you try to connect to the PC using Remote Desktop. If it doesn’t work, then you need to go back through the steps again and make sure all of the steps are complete. If it does work, great! You’re ready for the next step!

Next Step: Setup a free DynDNS account with an easy to remember name

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