Connecting to Your Computer Remotely

Sometimes you may want to be able to connect remotely to your computer. For example, if you are at home, you may want to be able to access files on your work computer. Or if you are at work, on vacation, or out wherever, you may want to be able to access files on your home computer. To access your computer remotely, you can use Remote Desktop, as long as you've configured port forwarding on your router for the port 3389 and opened this port on your firewall for Remote Desktop connections.

You can make a Remote Desktop connection to your computer by following these steps:

1. Click Start → All Programs → Accessories → Remote Desktop Connection. This displays the Remote Desktop Connection dialog box.
2. In the Computer field, type the name of the remote computer or its IP address. For a connection over the Internet, in most cases you'll need to use the IP address (when connecting to your home computer from other places, this is the public IP address assigned by your ISP).
3. Click Connect. Your screen will go black for a moment except for a title bar at the top.
4. When you see the logon dialog box, enter the username and password of an account that is a member of the Remote Desktop Users group, and then click OK.
5. If the account is already logged on to the remote computer, the desktop on the computer will lock and you'll then see the current desktop as though you were sitting at the keyboard.
6. If someone is already logged on to the remote computer, you'll see a prompt telling you that the other person will be disconnected. Click Yes to continue. The user will then see a prompt asking if he or she wants to allow the connection. If the remote user clicks Yes, he or she will be logged off similar to what happens when you use fast user switching. The user can resume that logon session later.

When you've connected successfully, you'll see the Remote Desktop window on the selected computer, and you'll be able to work with resources on the computer. Although you are using the remote computer, the remote computer shows the welcome screen with your account listed as being logged on and locked. A person with physical access to the remote computer cannot see what you're doing at the local computer. Keep in mind that firewalls and Network Address Translation (NAT) can prevent successful remote desktop connections. Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) port 3389 must be open to any firewall between your local computer and the remote computer.