Remote Access Help

[narv]

Hey guys,

I wanted to see if I could remote into my home desktop computer from my surface RT. I have allow remote access enabled on my desktop (computer properties, remote, checked enable) and I know my full computer name as per the original properties window.. I am on the same home network on both (since my desktop is also on wireless) but when I try to connect with the desktop version on the RT it just says it can't connect and either the computer is off or not available. I tried googling it but i can't seem to follow all of the steps as sometimes they tell me to select users or this or that and i don't have those options available to me. If someone would be willing to walk me through the steps or point me in a better direction I would appreciate it.

Thanks!

 

[illidanx]

Hey guys,

I wanted to see if I could remote into my home desktop computer from my surface RT. I have allow remote access enabled on my desktop (computer properties, remote, checked enable) and I know my full computer name as per the original properties window.. I am on the same home network on both (since my desktop is also on wireless) but when I try to connect with the desktop version on the RT it just says it can't connect and either the computer is off or not available. I tried googling it but i can't seem to follow all of the steps as sometimes they tell me to select users or this or that and i don't have those options available to me. If someone would be willing to walk me through the steps or point me in a better direction I would appreciate it.

Thanks!

I think I can help you. It's pretty easy actually. Note that these instructions only apply when your surface and your desktop are on the same network. If you bring your surface to work, for example, it's a little bit different to connect to your desktop at home. The trick here is to use the local IP address instead of the computer name. To do so.

1. Go to your router setting page.
2. Find the "Attached devices" section. This name is on a netgear router. If you router is of different brand, the naming can be a little different.
3. Look for the IP address associated with your desktop. It looks something like 192.168.1.x with a netgear router.

After you got the local IP address, just type it directly in remote desktop connection and that should be it.

 

[nasellok]

I am also having issues getting RDP to work on my surface.

If anyone can help me get remote desktop working on my surface it would be greatly appreciated. If a developer out there could set up an app to get this done easier, could be a moneymaker, I know id pay for it.

After scouring youtube, and the web, I found a lot of different walkthroughs on how to set up a home pc as a remote server. Unfortunately, I really don't know what im doing and cant figure out why it isn't working. Im running WinXP Pro SP3 on a few year old laptop (I bought the thing during the Vista debacle, and down graded to xp for software reasons - I am an architect and needed my AutoCAD and various graphic intensive programs)

These are the steps that I have tried, all to no avail

- I go to control panel, System, Remote, turn on Remote Desktop.
- open Linksys router configuration, and try to set up Port Forwarding
- this is where it really gets confusing for me, and I don't think that I am doing it correct. I know I need to open the port, I go to Applications and Gaming, and enter RDP, Im not sure of the port number, and what else to do here
- cmd, ipconfig - I enter all information - ip address, DNS, Gateway, etc?

I then found out that in order to really get this working, I needed a static IP address - Im not sure how to do this, but I found a couple posts, and a youtube video suggesting using DynDNS to get this working as a host. I signed up, and am still not able to connect.

Any help would be appreciated - Im not great with this stuff.....I never really played with networking, before....Please help me get my Surface working. Its possible im not entering the address correctly in the Surface Remote Desktop App. Which IP address do i enter - the web based, the one from my router, or whats listed in ipconfig? I think this might be what i am doing wrong.
Thank You!!

 

[NickA]

Here are a couple recent threads that might help:

http://forums.windowscentral.com/surface-windows-rt/205727-remote-desktop.html

http://forums.windowscentral.com/surface-windows-rt/201958-help-remote-desktop.html

 

[illidanx]

I am also having issues getting RDP to work on my surface.

If anyone can help me get remote desktop working on my surface it would be greatly appreciated. If a developer out there could set up an app to get this done easier, could be a moneymaker, I know id pay for it.

After scouring youtube, and the web, I found a lot of different walkthroughs on how to set up a home pc as a remote server. Unfortunately, I really don't know what im doing and cant figure out why it isn't working. Im running WinXP Pro SP3 on a few year old laptop (I bought the thing during the Vista debacle, and down graded to xp for software reasons - I am an architect and needed my AutoCAD and various graphic intensive programs)

These are the steps that I have tried, all to no avail

- I go to control panel, System, Remote, turn on Remote Desktop.
- open Linksys router configuration, and try to set up Port Forwarding
- this is where it really gets confusing for me, and I don't think that I am doing it correct. I know I need to open the port, I go to Applications and Gaming, and enter RDP, Im not sure of the port number, and what else to do here
- cmd, ipconfig - I enter all information - ip address, DNS, Gateway, etc?

I then found out that in order to really get this working, I needed a static IP address - Im not sure how to do this, but I found a couple posts, and a youtube video suggesting using DynDNS to get this working as a host. I signed up, and am still not able to connect.

Any help would be appreciated - Im not great with this stuff.....I never really played with networking, before....Please help me get my Surface working. Its possible im not entering the address correctly in the Surface Remote Desktop App. Which IP address do i enter - the web based, the one from my router, or whats listed in ipconfig? I think this might be what i am doing wrong.
Thank You!!

I don't have a linksys router but I will try to explain it as much as possible.

First see this video. Port Forwarding using a Linksys - YouTube

-The first step as shown in the video is to find out the local IP address of your desktop, which is the address the router uses to identify each devices in the home network. It has the form 192.168.1.x (see the video).

- The the second step as shown in the video is to go Applications and Gaming then Port Range forwarding. The first field you can enter any name, just so you know what it is later. Then enter 3389 for both "start" and "end". Keep "both" for "protocol". Then IP address is the local IP address you find in step 1. Check "enable" of course. Then "save settings"

- No, you dont necessarily need DynSys for RDC to work. The only thing you need to know is the IP address of your network at the time you want to connect. To do so, go to whatismyip.com and copy that IP address to the RDC client on your surface. Test it and it should work.

- Once you have confirmed that RDC works, you can test out DynSys. The idea of Dynsys is to run a program in background on your desktop, and this program will report to DynSys any change in the IP address of your network. This way, you will always know the current IP address.

 

[narv]

I think I can help you. It's pretty easy actually. Note that these instructions only apply when your surface and your desktop are on the same network. If you bring your surface to work, for example, it's a little bit different to connect to your desktop at home. The trick here is to use the local IP address instead of the computer name. To do so.

1. Go to your router setting page.
2. Find the "Attached devices" section. This name is on a netgear router. If you router is of different brand, the naming can be a little different.
3. Look for the IP address associated with your desktop. It looks something like 192.168.1.x with a netgear router.

After you got the local IP address, just type it directly in remote desktop connection and that should be it.

I have my router through brighthouse networks and it's a motorola modem router. I can't seem to find the information to login to the panel but I did ipconfig to find the IP address on my desktop. It's 192.168.0.9.. I tried putting that in and i got the same error message as before that the computer may not be on the network or is not turned on. I made just that i was on the same homegroup too, though i don't think that mattered. i can see my desktop computer on the homegroup though. Is it perhaps a port issue in my router?

 

[dark.davy]

I have my router through brighthouse networks and it's a motorola modem router. I can't seem to find the information to login to the panel but I did ipconfig to find the IP address on my desktop. It's 192.168.0.9.. I tried putting that in and i got the same error message as before that the computer may not be on the network or is not turned on. I made just that i was on the same homegroup too, though i don't think that mattered. i can see my desktop computer on the homegroup though. Is it perhaps a port issue in my router?

Download the "Telnet" app from the Microsoft Store.
The port is 3389. This will likely fail.

Can you ping the other machine?
Open a "command" prompt > type "ping 192.168.0.9"
Let me know if this works?

Is your router a router/modem from your Internet Service Provider?

 

[narv]

ii ran the ping and it did work. and yes the router/modem was provided by the ISP (which in this case is brighthouse).

i downloaded the telnet app (trial version) and connected to 192.198.0.9:3389 and got a connection error, failed to respond.

I am on hold with the ISP now to see if i can get the username / password since im 99.9% sure it's still the default information and i don't have it written down anywhere. (regardless of if i need it for this, i probably should have that handy..) Thanks for the help so far!

 

[Jubei700]

I had real trouble getting it to work too. I bought Win 8 Pro on the ?24.99 offer especially. In the end I cleared Workgroup settings from all machines and basically went back to basics. Even so, behaviour was odd. Sometimes I could ping the other two machines, sometimes not. Same between them. Sometimes they would show up under Network and other times not. Eventually they could all see each other and I was able to RDP to the Win 8 Pro machine. But I just tried again and this time it failed. Doesn't see it using the saved settings in the Metro RDP app. No idea. Will have another crack tomorrow.

 

[dark.davy]

Ive had issues after updates, of things like file sharing and such not connecting. I know on the last update I had to recreate file shares I had on the RT to get access to them again.

Narv, on the main PC, open a command prompt and type: netstat -ano > C:\Ports.txt
This should list off the ports listening in at text file, open it and search for 3389.

I only use the Metro RDP but havent had any issues, I even RDP to an ubuntu server running xRDP from the RT.

 

[illidanx]

ii ran the ping and it did work. and yes the router/modem was provided by the ISP (which in this case is brighthouse).

i downloaded the telnet app (trial version) and connected to 192.198.0.9:3389 and got a connection error, failed to respond.

I am on hold with the ISP now to see if i can get the username / password since im 99.9% sure it's still the default information and i don't have it written down anywhere. (regardless of if i need it for this, i probably should have that handy..) Thanks for the help so far!

Just to make sure you enable the right thing. In the Remote tab of System Properties, there are 2 section. The first section is Remote Assistant, which is enabled by default. You need to look at the second section. On windows 7 (and i guess windows 8 too), there are 3 options: (1) don't allow , (2) allow anything, and (3) allow only the more secure thing. Make sure that you have selected the 2nd option.

 

[narv]

Well i seem to have found the problem.. I feel kind of stupid but apparently my version of windows doesn't support remote desktop... Didn't catch that gem earlier it seems.. hmm... well thanks anyway guys! if i decide to upgrade it seems like a pretty straight forward task now, heh.

Are there any other options i could use that would work the same? I know there are many options but idk if they would work with the surface RT.

 

[illidanx]

Well i seem to have found the problem.. I feel kind of stupid but apparently my version of windows doesn't support remote desktop... Didn't catch that gem earlier it seems.. hmm... well thanks anyway guys! if i decide to upgrade it seems like a pretty straight forward task now, heh.

Are there any other options i could use that would work the same? I know there are many options but idk if they would work with the surface RT.

install teamviewer 8 beta on your desktop and download teamviewer touch on surface. Work out of the box, no port forward nightmare but a little less elegant than RDC. Anyway give it a try.

 

[narv]

install teamviewer 8 beta on your desktop and download teamviewer touch on surface. Work out of the box, no port forward nightmare but a little less elegant than RDC. Anyway give it a try.

That worked! Thanks!

 

[dark.davy]

install teamviewer 8 beta on your desktop and download teamviewer touch on surface. Work out of the box, no port forward nightmare but a little less elegant than RDC. Anyway give it a try.

+1 for Team viewer.

Yeah Microsoft fixed it with Windows 8 but previously unless it said Pro, Premium or Ultimate, it didn't have the capacity to allow remote desktop connections.

 

[nasellok]

So - good news - I got remote desktop to work - the desktop version. However, the "Metro" version will not connect when i type the exact same ip address, it tells me "Can't connect to the remote PC There seems to be a problem with the remote PC. Contact technical support or ask your network administrator for help" ..........not sure why - maybe because im connecting to XP.

Now, for some reason, every time i try to enter static IP address, it disconnects my internet connection, and the only way for me to get it back is to restart my modem, and router. I think I am entering the numbers wrong.

Is DynDNS an alternative solution for setting up static ip on router. If so, I'd rather not have to use third party. My goal, is to be able to remote into my computer from wherever, whenever i want. Can anyone who knows what they are doing help me with this. Surface connects fine on home network, but will not out of network.
Thanks!!

 

[dark.davy]

So - good news - I got remote desktop to work - the desktop version. However, the "Metro" version will not connect when i type the exact same ip address, it tells me "Can't connect to the remote PC There seems to be a problem with the remote PC. Contact technical support or ask your network administrator for help" ..........not sure why - maybe because im connecting to XP.

Now, for some reason, every time i try to enter static IP address, it disconnects my internet connection, and the only way for me to get it back is to restart my modem, and router. I think I am entering the numbers wrong.

Is DynDNS an alternative solution for setting up static ip on router. If so, I'd rather not have to use third party. My goal, is to be able to remote into my computer from wherever, whenever i want. Can anyone who knows what they are doing help me with this. Surface connects fine on home network, but will not out of network.
Thanks!!

So just to get back on the same page.
-You can connect locally with the local IP to Windows XP
-You are trying via the External IP of your router but it fails.

**DynDNS is a service which allows you to use a friendly name for the address (So www.google.com instead of xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx) As well if you IP changes (As alot of Internet Services do to residential customers) it updates it so you can always access it via the name.

 

[nasellok]

So just to get back on the same page.
-You can connect locally with the local IP to Windows XP
-You are trying via the External IP of your router but it fails.

**DynDNS is a service which allows you to use a friendly name for the address (So www.google.com instead of xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx) As well if you IP changes (As alot of Internet Services do to residential customers) it updates it so you can always access it via the name.

Yes, in my apartment i can connect, but not outside of my home wifi connection. I am sure that im entering something wrong in my static ip settings. I go to linksys setup in browser, select static ip, and enter the numbers verbatim from my ipconfig /all. When i click confirm changes, the internet connection gets lost, and i need to reboot my computer, and router, and re-configure router to automatically detect ip. My port forwarding is correct because i can connect on the network, but the static ip is not working. I also tried to do this in the Network Connections TCP/IP settings in control panel, essentially the same thing happens - i set IP manually, and DNS manually, and then i immediately lose the internet connection.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[dark.davy]

Aha, thats why you lose internet.

You cant change your public IP, its given to you by your ISP (you can pay a little more usually to get them to assign you one, that way it never changes) you need to reference it when you are outside your house.

So find out what the Router is using already, then use that in the remote dekstop client to connect.

Example: Your at your friends place. His router gives you a 192.168.0.12 address, you want to connect home, the IP your router has (The public one) is 8.53.129.63.
You dont need to change any IP's, just use 8.53.129.63 as the address in your remote desktop client.

 

[illidanx]

Aha, thats why you lose internet.

You cant change your public IP, its given to you by your ISP (you can pay a little more usually to get them to assign you one, that way it never changes) you need to reference it when you are outside your house.

So find out what the Router is using already, then use that in the remote dekstop client to connect.

Example: Your at your friends place. His router gives you a 192.168.0.12 address, you want to connect home, the IP your router has (The public one) is 8.53.129.63.
You dont need to change any IP's, just use 8.53.129.63 as the address in your remote desktop client.

In case you wonder how to find out your public IP address. From your home computer, go to whatismyip.com.