remotely connecting to home network

hey all

can someone answer this ? for me.....is the only way for me to connect to a pc that is behind my home router for me to have some sort of vpn connection, whether it be software or hardware? is it at all possible to connect to a pc just by configuring my router. fyi, my router is a netgear WGT364U.

thanks for your time

confused:confused

 

Do you want to remotely controll the PC or just access some files? A lil more info plz.

 

Like Foogoo said more info, but in a nutshell..

Use port forwarding in your router if you want to do remote desktop and remotely control your PC. I believe its port 3389.

 

debud, depends on the os the original poster is using if he can actually use rdp, only xp pro and some versions of vista actually contain the server software for that capibitly. The client to connect to rdp is in both versions of xp and all vista, but thats not the server/host side.

 

thanks for the responses so far. that is helpful. just to clarify, i'm on xp pro connecting to xp pro. as long as i have the port forwarding setup correctly on my router i can connect to that pc remotely whether it be using rdp or some other 3rd party software? if that is the case can you please explain how the natted ip's get resolved by just the wan address. or is the port forwarding actually assigning that inside ip address to a port number so as long as i have that ip set statically on the pc i'm set???? so an example of what i'm asking would be using rdp to connect to my home pc from anywhere using 27.18.211.49:3389, the wan address followed by a port number that is being mapped to an ip on my router???? once again, thanks for the assistance. i appreciate the help!

after typing all of this i re-read the post by dedub and now i'm more confused. i realize what i typed above is inaccurate but i decided to leave it there just in case i might at least be headed down the right path. i now see that 3389 is the port for rdp so i'm confused on how i can hit a private ip on my lan from anywhere outside my network?? my understanding is that is where the vpn comes in because i can create as many privately mapped ip's under 1 gateway as i need. please clarify.

thank you

 

OK here we go....
Remote Desktop is M$ way of saying RDP. I think you are on track but between Coleman guy and myself Im sure we can break it down. Your computer in your house has a private IP that is Nat'ed from your Router. Private I.P's are non rout able through the internet. From the outside world, you need your router "real" IP before you do anything.
Now, I mentioned Port forwarding. Different routers call it different things. I believe D-link calls it port Forwarding. In your router at home, under the port forwarding tab... you basically tell the router this " If a request for RDP comes in on port 3389, forward it to this IP address". It then passes the buck to your computer that is waiting for the Remote desktop request. (that option has to be turned on in XP). You should get a user password box unless you set up the outside computer to automatically authenticate the user and pass once it connects.
In two paragraphs I tried to keep it as simple as possible. A whole book could be written on the subject. Remember one thing.. this is not a VPN. to do a VPN you need either a server or a different type of router.

 

got it. thanks for the explaination. i have already set this up and tested and i am now able to access my pc's remotely. the only thing i'm still stuck on is this.....if the port # for rdp is 3389 and i have mulitple pc's to connect to using rdp, do i have to designate one pc for 3389 but to connect to others choose an open port that is not designated for any particular service and connect via that port? after doing a little reading i see that the private port range is 49152 through 65535. so as long as i designate a second port number within this range for rdp to connect to a second private ip on my lan would that work?

 

I think Im following you....
You want to connect to different PC's behind your router and not just one? If so you can trick the router to passing RDP to different computers this way...
When your on the "outside" and launch remote desktop connection end it with a : and a different port.. like this 66.54.34.7:3390, then tell your router "if an RDP request comes in on port 3390, send it to this private IP on 3389. For each computer behind your router you could have a different port that only you know. Just remember, no colon and it will use the default port, add the colon and a different port number and your in business. There will be a separate rule/forward for each computer behind your router. Anything more technical than that you will have to start investing in some hardware or a server.
good luck

 

You have to change the listen ports on each computer so it would be unique to that computer.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306759

Then the principle is described at the end of this page before the notes (the example is with VNC but the principle is the same with any application that is used for remote and needs Routing).

http://www.ezlan.net/vnc.html

.

 

just wanted to say thanks to everybody for the help. especially cat5. those links were very helpful. i think this post will also be helpful to anyone looking for similar advice on this site. thanks guys!

:cool