puppy breath

The Remote Desktop do***entation in Windows Ultimate (5308) is a little
confusing, as though it's not just a client. But it couldn't possibly be the
sort of thing where I just leave my home PC online through my ISP, then
connect to it remotely across the Internet, right? My home machine would
need a FQDN for me to even be able to find it from afar, right? Not to
mention Terminal Services, a Web server, or something.

zack whittaker

Well, it can be as simple as that yeh. All you need is an external IP of
which your router or ISP can provide you with, or a direct port or something
like that.

I've done it with mine - I've got my computer names linked up to
***.zacknet.co.uk so I can access them wherever I go )

--
Zack Whittaker
» ZackNET Enterprises: http://www.zacknet.co.uk
» MSBlog on ResDev: http://www.msblog.org
» Vista Knowledge Base: http://www.vistabase.co.uk
» This mailing is provided "as is" with no warranties, and confers no
rights. All opinions expressed are those of myself unless stated so, and not
of my employer, best friend, Ghandi, my mother or my cat. Glad we cleared
that up!

--: Original message follows :--

puppy breath

Yeah, that makes sense. With my ISP I'd have to upgrade my home account to a
business account for that. I was looking for the free/easy/mindless way to
do it. Something like Remote Assistance without needing someone on the other
side to respond when you click Request Control. You connect through an RA
ticket or just by entering the IP addresses from that ticket into some
prompt, enter the password, and you're connected.

Not the most secure thing in the world. But hey, we're talking about a home
network with a dynamic IP address. It's not like it would be exposed all the
time. You'd just have to remember to generate an RA ticket or check your IP
address before you leave.

sooner al [mvp]

You could, at least with XP Pro, run Remote Desktop through a VPN or Secure
Shell (SSH) tunnel for added security. I have done both and currently use
OpenVPN.

With OpenVPN you need a cert, key and you protect the key with a strong
password. With SSH you can use a key pair protected with a strong password.

--
Al Jarvi (MS-MVP Windows Networking)

Please post *ALL* questions and replies to the news group for the
mutual benefit of all of us...
The MS-MVP Program - http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights...

sooner al [mvp]

I forgot to add that I am using a pure residential account from my ISP. In
my case I use a free dynamic naming service from No-IP.com that maps a fully
qualified domain name (FQDN) or alias if you will to my ISP's dynamically
assigned IP address. I simply call home using the alias.

http://www.no-ip.com

--
Al Jarvi (MS-MVP Windows Networking)

Please post *ALL* questions and replies to the news group for the
mutual benefit of all of us...
The MS-MVP Program - http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights...

puppy breath

Thanks for the tip. I guess it's mainly the "free" part I'm interested in,
because I'd rarely ever have to connect to my home network remotely.

sooner al [mvp]

I like free... Everything I mentioned is free by the way...ie. OpenVPN, SSH
(I used the free copSSH server package), PuTTY a free SSH client and of
course Remote Desktop...

--
Al Jarvi (MS-MVP Windows Networking)

Please post *ALL* questions and replies to the news group for the
mutual benefit of all of us...
The MS-MVP Program - http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights...

puppy breath

By "cert" you mean like an SSL certificate or something?

sooner al [mvp]

Yes...With OpenVPN you roll your own...

http://theillustratednetwork.mvps.org/OpenVPN/OpenVPN.html

--
Al Jarvi (MS-MVP Windows Networking)

Please post *ALL* questions and replies to the news group for the
mutual benefit of all of us...
The MS-MVP Program - http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights...

puppy breath

Cool, thanks all.