Help with Remote Desktop

I have spent more than 3 hours on the phone with Microsoft and so far they have not been able to help me. They are getting a second level technician to call me back so I thought i would try here in the mean time since they probably will bot be able to help.

Configuration
Desktop = Windows XP Professional SP3 wire connected to
Linksys WRT160N router.

Laptop = Windows Vista Home Premium SP1

Both computers have the same workgroup name
Both computers can access the internet just fine.
Neither computer can ping the other "request timed out"

Probelm
When I use the laptop while I am on my home wireless connection I can use "Remote Desktop" to gain access of the Desktop. Work perfectly.

When I go to any location that has wifi I can not connect to my Desktop using "Remote Desktop". I just get an error saying:

Things I have tried

1. Going into router setup and turning off the firewall.
2. Turning off my firewall on my computer and makign sure Windows firewall was also turned off.
3. Checking the registry key was set to 0. Not sure which one, i did the with Microsoft.
4. I was able to ping from both computers in Safe Mode
5. I was able to Ping both computers when Trend Micro was not running.
6. I tried using "remote Desktop" at a internet cafe to access my computer with trend micro turned off. (but not in Safe Mode)

This is most frustrating. Would love some help here.

Many thanks,
Houstn

 

You will need to:

* Give your desktop a static LAN IP address.
* Map the RDP listening port to that IP, so your router will know to route requests to the specific machine you want to access.

When using your laptop outside your LAN (from the internet), you will need to:

* Know the current IP address of your internet connection as assigned by your ISP.
* In the RDP login box "Computer:" box, enter that IP address and port number in the form: [IP address]:[port number], e.g. 123.456.789.123:1234

Also:

* Your desktop will need to have a passworded account in order to be accessed using the RDP login interface.
* You will need to make sure that user account is allowed RDP access in the System Properties -> Remote tab.

The default listening port for WinXP Pro is 3389. You can change it to something else in the Windows Registry to increase security.

 

Is this done in the router through the admin interface? I have a Linksys WRT160N

Thaks so much for your help.

Houston

 

Yes. Different brands call it different things, but it's still the same result-- tying the port number of the service on the LAN machine you want to access to that specific machine in the router's setup. After you get it working with port 3389, Google "RDP default port" and you'll find articles that will tell you what registry key to modify to change it to something else non-standard.

 

I tried my luck and it still did not work. Does the image attachment look correct to you?