Remote Desktop on Workgroup Computers

Question

_{Sunday, December 11, 2016 2:59 PM}

I have a workgroup consisting of a laptop, two home PCs in a workgroup.   I travel frequently with my laptop, and need to be able to connect to the PCs at home.  I'm currently using LogMeIn, but it has gotten too expensive for me.

I've seen instructions on the internet for using Windows' RDS, but they're all based on using a DDNS service because of public IP addresses. I, however, have a static IP address, and I can't seem to get RDS to work that way.

I'd be very grateful if anyone could sent/point me to instructions for doing that.

Capt. Dinosaur

All replies (6)

_{Monday, December 12, 2016 3:23 PM ✅Answered}

Hi again, and thank you for your assistance.

It has been a long time since I tried using Team Viewer, and I can't remember what the problems were.  I guess I'll try it again and see how it works now.  Perhaps the newer versions will have eliminated whatever my complaints were.

You're quite right about not facing the internet with a bare MS RDP;  that was pointed out in the Security Certification course that I took last year.  I had almost forgotten about it.  Thank you for reminding me.

I'll get back to you in a couple of weeks (going away for Christmas) about my experience with Team Viewer.

Capt. Dinosaur

_{Tuesday, December 13, 2016 5:34 AM ✅Answered}

Hi ,

For TeamViewer question, you could contact TeamViewer support, they are the best resource to help you.
https://www.teamviewer.com/en/help/index.aspx
NOTE: This response contains a reference to a third party World Wide Web site. Microsoft is providing this information as a convenience to you. Microsoft does not control these sites and has not tested any software or information found on these sites.

Best regards

Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help.
If you have feedback for TechNet Subscriber Support, contact [email protected].

_{Sunday, December 11, 2016 5:10 PM}

To get you internet facing IP to work with remote desktop you would need to set a port redirect on your firewall \ router to route any incoming RDP requests to the desktop. http://www.howtogeek.com/131961/how-to-access-windows-remote-desktop-over-the-internet/ has a little more info.

Have a look at TeamViewer free for personnel use last time I looked.

_{Sunday, December 11, 2016 10:21 PM}

Hi Mr Happy, and thank you for your reply.

I already have Port 443 open for RDP/RDG access for my server and its joined workstations, for my wife's online business. RDG uses Port 443 because its encrypted, whereas 3389 is not.  Now, however, I need to be able to access my workgroup computers which are inaccessible via the RDG.  Since I have two workgroup PCs I can make two additional entries to forward port 3389 to each of them, but would that compromise my RDG security?

Unfortunately I tried Team Viewer, but I tried a PITA to use.  I frequently have to troubleshoot a computer belonging to a family member who lives 1,000 miles away.  Maybe it was me, but I had trouble with it.

Capt. Dinosaur

_{Sunday, December 11, 2016 10:51 PM}

Well TeamViewer not had issues with that, and know a few people how use it so wonder what issues you had? Maybe another post or a case for TeamViewer support.

Afaik using 443 for the RDP protocol will not use 443 SSL as that is protocol based (not TCP based, different layer of the network work model, encryption being layer 6 TCP layer 4). However RDP will use its security and encryption on any port.

So you could redirect other ports on the public IP to different PCs 3389 to get to multiple connections. Say public port 50123 to local 192.168.1.123:3389 and so on. That would do. Still some say never have a bare MS RDP on the internet, search something like 'public facing 3389' to see the discussion on that. Moving it to a different port does help a bit but simple port scan on the public IP would reveal what RDP on that port.

_{Saturday, December 31, 2016 1:05 AM}

Hi All,

Sorry I haven't been back lately, but we're on vacation in our motorhome, and have been camped where there wasn't any internet signal. Talk about Internet Withdrawal!

While I'm still going to experiment with Team Viewer (Thanks for the link, Rick), but FWIW I finally figured out how to log into my workgroup computers with RDP.  This will only work if you have a Static IP into your network, AND an assigned a static IP address to the compute(s) that you wish to access:

In the RDP Connection dialog, click on the "Show Options" link, then make the following entries:

In the "Computer" box: IPv4 static IP\IPv4 Computer  static IP

In the "Username" box: WORKGROUP\computer name

Next, click the "Advanced Tab", then the "Settings" button and select the Radio Button next to "Do not use an RD Gateway Server".

Finally, click the "Connect" button and Voila!, you'll be facing your remote computer.

Note: Make sure

1.  * That you have Port 3389 opened in your router, for each WORKGRUP computer to which you want to be able to connect.*

2.  That each computer has an assigned static IP address (IPv4 format)

3.* That Remote Access is enabled on each.*

Capt. Dinosaur