Remote Directly to specific computer

[Leesha]

Hi,
I have a static IP at home. There are 4 computers. If I want to remote into my latpop from work, I first remote into the computer that is connected to the internet modem. I then have to remote into the laptop (which is wireless) from there. Is there a way to directly connect to the laptop or somehow have the laptop remotely?
Thanks,
Leesha

[Leif]

If I understand you correctly, I think you need to set up 'port forwarding' in your home modem/router.

Find out the IP address of your laptop on your home network (e.g. 192.168.254.23)
Allocate an unused port on your modem (e.g. 15151)
Set up the redirection so that a connection to port 15151 is redirected directly to your laptop on 192.168.254.23

When you want to RDC in, you would add the port number to your home IP address, so if for example it was 123.123.123.123, you would enter:
123.123.123.123:15151
as the destination in your RDC access window:

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The setup layout in your modem will depend on the make, but typically may look like this:

x.jpg

The above is from our work modem - I wouldn't expect you to have or need SMTP or POP3 as a service as these connect to our in-house mail-server. In this example, an RDC connection into our modem to port 15151 connects directly to the PC at 192.168.254.199 on our internal network.
The 'Service Name' is whatever you want - we have simply named them RDP1, RDP2, etc. for convenience.

[Leesha]

Thanks so much!! I can't wait to try it! Another question while I'm at this. When setting up remote desktop permissions is there anything different to take into consideration with Windows 8 compared to Windows 7.

Thanks!

[JoeP]

The PC to which you are connecting must be running a Pro or Enterprise SKU of Windows.

Joe

[BobH]

May I jump in on your post, Leesha?

How to do you connect to your home LAN? Are you using Remote Desktop or some other application? Can you just put the IP address of your static home network address (ISP connection IP address, right?) into a browser's URL and go there with the browser? If so, what do you see in the browser? It seems to me that there would have to be an application running (probably in IIS) a web server that would give options that your browser could act upon.

I'm trying to educate myself (it ain't easy after you enter your 8th decade of life) on home networking issues and how to allow a LAN to be accessed by user from the WAN (Internet, to be more specific). I want to do FTP from my home system when accessed remotely. I've been through the process of setting up IIS on Win 7 HPE and even set up the skeleton for an FTP site within it, but I'm having difficulty understanding how a browser's request is handled by the LAN software so that I can set up authentication, authorizations, user id's, passwords, IP address directory and whatever other security is needed to prevent the hackers from turning my LAN into a bot.

I'll watch this thread with eager anticipation.

[Leesha]

HI! Just came back to this as I've been struggling with my IT carrier trying to get this worked out. Here is my info.
I use ATT Uverse and use their router. Even though I technically have 5 static IP addresses, the router is only able to point to one port, which is currently set to my main PC. They are telling me that the only way I would be able to remote directly into the laptop would be to have the router pointing the static IP of the laptop to the laptop vs the way it is set up now which is pointing the port to the static IP of the PC. I still have the ability to remote into the PC, and then from the PC set off another remote session to get into the laptop. This works but is slow and cumbersome. My other goal is not the keep the PC running at all times as I mainly use it to connect to the printers etc.

Their suggestion was that I put VPN software directly on the laptop (they assured me there are good "free" ones out there) and then I would be able to set up the router to allow me get directly into EITHER the PC or the latpop. This is way outta my league, althoug to be honest, I knew more than the first 2 tiers of techs that I spoke with so I have hope that I can do it.

With all of this being said, does anyone know of or could recommend a "free" vpn software that is user friendly?

Thanks,
Leesha

[BobH]

Hi Leesha!

Having no experience with nor knowledge of ATT Uverse, I cannot offer suggestions for you. I do have experience with several wireless routers including my latest NetGear N750 WRND4300. This router has IP addresses for every device on the network which includes desktops, laptops, iPads, iPhones, Rokus and 2 wifi printers, a Canon and an HP. The printers are not cable connected to any computer. I can print from any of the devices in the network that support a print function. I can even print at home when I am away and family and friends to whom I've given the address can send things to the printers.

I have not yet finished the setup, but I'm working on establishing an FTP server. I want to be able to access and download music, video, and text or other files from my system and allow others to upload to us. My NetGear WNDR4300 has a USB port to which I have connected a 1Tb HDD which also has an IP address. I am trying to set up the server so that HDD is the only device accessible.

Please keep us posted on your progress and what you learn about the ATT gear. I'm sure it will benefit others.

Thanks for sharing.

[Leesha]

HI!
Unfortunately, with Uverse vs DSL I am limited to using the router they provide. If I switch from Uverse to straight DSL then I can go with whatever router I wish to use. That may be something I need to look into if I am not able to do this with VPN software.
Leesha

[Leif]

Does Setting up Port Forwarding- AT&T U-verse High Speed Internet Support help at all? Otherwise, Googling "modem with port forwarding uverse" brings up a fair few hits.

[Leesha]

HI Leif,
They did tell me they could disable the firewall and open up the ports but that was not recommended due to no blocks keeping others from getting in. That is why they suggested the VPN software on laptop. I will goodle "modem with.............." and see what I find.
Thanks!
Leesha

[hlewton]

HI!
Unfortunately, with Uverse vs DSL I am limited to using the router they provide. If I switch from Uverse to straight DSL then I can go with whatever router I wish to use. That may be something I need to look into if I am not able to do this with VPN software.
Leesha

I read this and really don't know a lot about it but thought this could be in error, at least the way I am understanding what you said, which may be wrong. In any case I called the fellow who builds my computers and helps me any time I have home network problems because I seemed to remember he had ATT Uversse wireless router in his place of business. He confirmed that, in fact he does. So I asked him if another wireless router could be hooked to it in order to attach other devises. He then told me that is exactly what he has. I got the name of the additional wireless router he is using, which is hooked directly to the Uverse wireless router. Not that is is the only one that would work but he is using a Netgear WNDR3400 D2 and has printers with static IP addresses hooked to it plus other wireless devises like laptops and iPads. So, again, not sure I am understanding you correctly but hopefully this may help.

[Leesha]

Thank you! You absolutely understood what I was saying. I appreciate the info you sent. It didn't sit right with me that I couldn't do as you described above but then again that is why I was on the phone with ATT tech support. I had a feeling they were wrong when they tried to access my router page and put in the static ip address vs the internal address and kept getting an error that the page couldn't be opened. I suggested he try the local IP but he assured me it should work with the static IP. What do I know??? Anyway, when I put in the local IP the page opened right up. I'll probably be back with help with this but at least I have a place to start.

Now to figure out what order I hook things up? Does the router get hooked to the Uverse router and then I assign the ports, or does the uverse router get hooked to the Netgear? I thinking its Uverse and then the netgear hooked to the uverse????

Thanks!
Leesha

[hlewton]

Now to figure out what order I hook things up? Does the router get hooked to the Uverse router and then I assign the ports, or does the uverse router get hooked to the Netgear? I thinking its Uverse and then the netgear hooked to the uverse????

Thanks!
Leesha

I can only answer this because I asked him that question. He has the Netgear router hooked up to the Uverse router. I don't know how or I should say what IPs Uverse uses like 192.168.1.1 but the wireless router I bought, using recommendations from this forum allowed, me to assign IP addresses to what my previous router used even though they were not the same brand. I am only mentioning this because you may want to consider if the configuration of any new wireless router you buy would allow you to reassign the IP addresses if you have anything in your network that is assigned a static IP now.

[Leesha]

Thanks! That is what I pictured but wasn't sure. This ought to fun LOL!
Leesha

[hlewton]

Good luck. Hope it all works out for you.

[StuartR]

The feature you need here is called Network Address Translation - or NAT for short. It enables a router to share one fixed external IP address between multiple computers on the internal network. It's called NAT because it translates IP addresses and port numbers based on a data table it stores internally, so it knows where to send each packet.

Most routers support NAT, but if the one provided by your ISP doesn't then you can just install a second router behind it and do the NAT there.