Connecting to a Remote Desktop via the Internet

Connecting to a Remote Desktop host over your network is easy to set up and fast, but your local area network might not always be so local. If you're traveling, what do you do if you want to connect to your desktop or to the desktop of some computer on your network? This is possible, but it requires some care to ensure that you don't open up your computer or your network to Internet-based hackers.

CAUTION: In this section, you should also set up your accounts with robust passwords. Using Remote Desktop over the Internet means that you open up a small window on your network that is at least visible to others on the Net. To ensure that other Internet users cannot exploit this hole, a strong password is a must.

To configure your system to allow Remote Desktop connections via the Internet, you need to perform these general steps.

1. Configure Remote Desktop to use a listening port other than the default port.
2. Configure Windows Firewall to allow TCP connections through the port you specified in step 1.
3. Determine the IP address of the Remote Desktop host or your network's router.
4. Configure your network router (if you have one) to forward data sent to the port specified in step 1 to the Remote Desktop host computer.
5. Use the IP address from step 3 and the port number from step 1 to connect to the Remote Desktop host via the Internet.