How to setup Remote Desktop on Windows XP

Posted on March 26, 2007 at 8:18 pm

Today is computer tip day! If you have never used Remote Desktop, it is a really great way to connect to another PC (office, home, etc) remotely and get work done that you otherwise could not get done. I routinely use remote desktop to connect to servers at our office, connect to user’s computers to provide tech support, and to connect to my personal computer at home to access files.

In order to use Remote Desktop, there are a couple of things you need to understand. First off, remote desktop only works with Windows XP and Windows 2003. What I mean by this is that you can only connect INTO a Window XP or 2003 machine. You can use a Windows 98, ME, or 2000 to connect INTO a Windows XP or 2003 machine, but you cannot connect INTO a 98, ME or 2000 machine remotely. If you want to be able to connect to a Windows 2000 or earlier machine, you’ll have to buy commerical software.

Secondly, you need to make sure that you are logged in as a computer administrator on the machine in order to set it up for remote access. If you brought a computer from a store or got it straight from the manufacturer, the first user name you create is always an Administrator account.

An easy way to check whether or not you are an Administraor is to go to Start, Control Panel and then click on User Accounts. You’ll see your user name and it should have “Administrators” or “Computer Administrator” written next to it.

Thirdly, the administrator account on your machine must have a password. If you do not have to type in a password in order to access Windows when you start up your computer, then you do not have a password set up and Remote Desktop will not work. Remote desktop does not allow you to connect to a computer with a user name that does not have a password.

When you go to User Accounts, you will see an option to create a password for the account. Go ahead and do that.

Next, if the computer you are connecting to is running Windows XP SP2 (which it most likely will be), then you need to open the firewall to allow remote desktop connections. To do this, go to Start, Control Panel, Windows Firewall and click on the Exceptions tab.

Make sure that the Remote Desktop checkbox is checked. Don’t worry about how my screen looks, it’s part of a corporate network. You should have a lot less entries and one of them should be Remote Desktop. Check it and then click OK.

The last thing that needs to be done in order for Remote Desktop to work correctly is to tell Windows that we want to allow users to connect. So far we’ve just fulfilled the requirements, but now we have to actually allow remote desktop connections to this computer.

Go to Start, Control Panel, and click on System. Click on the Remote tab and make sure that the “Allows users to connect remotely to this computer” is checked.

And that’s it! Your computer is now setup to connect to! First try connecting to the computer while on the same network…as in if you are at home, try connecting to the computer from another computer on your home network. In order to connect, go to the other computer and click on Start, All programs, Accessories, Communications, and Remote Desktop Connection.

In the dialog box, you can type in the IP address or the name of the computer. The best way to connect is to type in the IP address of the computer. In order to get the IP address of the computer you want to connect to, go to the computer and click on Start, Run and type in CMD.

In the black command window, type in the word “ipconfig” without the quotes as shown below and press Enter.

You’ll see your IP address listed along with some other info, but you don’t need to worry about that. Write down that IP address (192.x.x.x or something similar) and type that number exactly into the remote desktop text box on the other computer (the computer you are connecting from).

Click Connect and you should get a login screen pop up, which means you have successfully connected to the other computer. You can now enter the Computer Administrator user name and password.

If you get an error saying that computer cannot accept new connections, etc. that means something was not configured correctly. Remember you need to give the administrator account a password, open the port in the firewall, and check the allow remote connections checkbox in the System properties. All of these three things you need to do on the computer you want to connect TO.

Once you are able to connect from within the same network, now you can try to connect from the outside. So if you want to connect to your home computer from the office, you can do that, but you’ll have to do a few extra things.

First, you have to get your public IP Address (not the 192.168.x.x number) and you can do this by going to the computer you want to connect in to and navigating to the web site http://www.whatismyip.com/ and this will give you your public ip address. This is the address that can be used from anywhere in the world to connect to your specific location and is unique.

The second thing you have to do is open the port in your router (unless you’re connecting your cable modem directly into your computer) and forward that port to the computer you want to connect to. Here’s how you would do this on a Netgear router (as I have that) and is pretty much the same for other routers. Most manufacturer’s web sites have an article on how to configure their particular router for remote desktop since it’s very common.

You’ll need to log into your router by typing it’s IP address into the IE address bar. You can figure out the IP address of your router by going to any computer on your network (that you want to connect into) and opening the command prompt like we did above and typing ipconfig again. In addition to the IP Address field, you’ll also see Default Gateway, this is your router.

Type that address into your IE address bar as follows and press Enter:

You’ll most likely be prompted for a user name and password. Usually, you can find this in the documetation or on the under side of the router itself. For my Netgear router, the username as “admin” (lowercase) and the password was “password”.

Once you’re in, you should see an option called “Port Fowarding/Port Triggering” or something very similiar. I knew Netopia calls these “Pinholes” and on Linksys it might be called a “Service”.

Once you’re on the Port page, choose Port Triggering (if you see Remote Desktop in the list of services, you can choose that instead, but it may not be there). Now we’ll add the service for Remote Desktop. Click Add Service.

The next part may look hard, but it’s not really too bad once you understand what everything does. The service name can be anything, so type in “RemoteDesktop“. For the Service User, you can choose Any or Single Address. We want to choose single address because we want to connect into just one computer. Type in the IP address of your computer into the space provided. Again, that is what we already got earlier from the ipconfig command.

For the service type, choose TCP protocol. Now for “Triggering Port, Starting Port, and Ending Port” put in 3389. Port 3389 is the port Windows uses to connect using remote desktop.

Click Apply and you’re done! You should now be able to use your public IP address (type this into the “Computer” textbox in the Remote Desktop software) to connect through your router to your computer!

Please let me know if something is wrong or if it did not work for you! Thanks!

» Filed Under Windows XP

Comments

50 Responses to “How to setup Remote Desktop on Windows XP”

Mallikarjun said on : September 13th, 2007 at 8:04 am

Sir,
I am very happy to say that I have succeeded to connect my Computer from other computer which is in my network.
But I am unable to connect my PC from outside of my network i.e., otherplace as Our computer is connected through two LAN Extenders to the router of other Centre. Please reslove my problem.
Thanking you sir,

Jitu gosai said on : September 25th, 2007 at 1:27 pm

this is my same porblem of Mallikarjun

William L.Fountain said on : October 3rd, 2007 at 5:49 am

Thanks for the info I will try it and will let you know how I do.

Daych said on : October 22nd, 2007 at 3:13 pm

Please teach me if i using norton secrity 2007, how was i setting on it when i want to use remote desktop! Thanks very much !

James Bouse said on : December 30th, 2007 at 6:24 pm

I am having problems with my client computer (home) connecting to my host (office). I am able to connect from one of my office’s computers to the other, following your instructions, but when I enter the IP address into Remote Desktop Connection screen from my home, it gives me a “Remote Desktop Disconnect” notice.
HELP!

Alan said on : February 3rd, 2008 at 10:35 pm

Am I able to connect to my computer at home if all I have at home are Modem and a switch? Thanks.

Nazrul said on : March 15th, 2008 at 6:40 pm

hey, how to setup remote desktop if the operating systems are different? Such as the server being XP and the client being Vista.

Alan said on : March 15th, 2008 at 11:29 pm

this is for Nazrul
as far as I know, it’s still the same
and if u still can’t get it to work, try adding the port number at the end of ur IP address so it should look like 192.168.x.xx:3389.
if u still have any question just post another comment and I’ll try my best to help u.

Rahul said on : March 19th, 2008 at 5:26 am

hi
I wanted to connect to my office PC but was not able to do so.But after reading yout artical i was able to DO. thanks for this artical. it is great. I am usinf the DynDNS to get the IP of my office
rahul

Mark Horton said on : March 29th, 2008 at 7:19 am

I can find the remote desktop Icon anywhere on my windows xp computer. It is not a new computer and it looks like it has been turned off. How do I turn it back on?

Govind Modi said on : May 1st, 2008 at 2:27 am

thanks a lot. Its realy works gr8. But I have one problem.
I am using Winxp Professional SP2. Both end Client & Server.. When i try to connect then server logoff and client connect to server. So i am not able to work from my server. I want to use both computer Server & Client at a same time. Pl guide me what to do in this case. If possible pl ans it to my mail also

thanks

bye

govind modi
india
surat

bluamaroo said on : May 3rd, 2008 at 12:55 pm

I tried to setup my home laptop as a terminal server and I already configured my router so that I can access my home laptop from work. I tried to enter the external IP in remote desktop at work and it shows me a username and password to enter. My question is what is this username and password? how can i set it up and cahnge it

akishore said on : May 3rd, 2008 at 10:49 pm

Govind, if I get you correctly, when you connect to your server from the client machine, you want to be able to use both machines at the same time right? You can actually just minimize the remote computer by clicking on the Minimize button in the remote session at the top.

You can also access the hard drives of the client machine while in the remote server by going to Options and then clicking on the Local Resources tab.

Bluamaroo, the username and password should be the administrator login for that machine you are trying to connect to. If you do not have a password configured on the machine, you need to setup a password for the Administrator account. You can do that by going to Control Panel and then clicking on User Accounts. Thanks!

Govind Modi said on : May 7th, 2008 at 11:13 pm

Thanks for your help. I think you are not getting my point. I want to say you as follow…..
I have 1 pc & 1 Laptop. ok . Now i want to connect my laptop to my pc by remote desktop. I am able to connect LAptop to my Pc. But at the same time my pc loged off and i can use my pc from my laptop as remote desktop only . But I also want to use my pc as stand alone pc. Someone told me that In XP i can’t use my server pc when it is connect by other remote desktop. Its possible in Win 2003 Server. Is it true ????? So pl guide me. what to do ?

Thanks
Bye

Govind Modi

Colin said on : May 11th, 2008 at 12:25 am

govind, to your question, for me ,
i think for one thing , you can try to use remote assitance to access your pc,(but what you have done on your pc is coordinate with the laptop’remote assitance program).so maybe this cannot achieve your point.
for another thing ,you should try for some utility ,e.g. VMWare or some other Virtual PC software…

ehaze said on : May 22nd, 2008 at 7:23 pm

thank you for the quick and easy answer!

Rajkalyan said on : May 26th, 2008 at 1:48 pm

what do i put as the ip?

Rajkalyan said on : May 26th, 2008 at 1:52 pm

im trying to connect but im getting a network error

Alan said on : May 26th, 2008 at 11:00 pm

Rajkalyan
if u r connecting from outside the network u’ll need to put in ur external ip address, which u can find at whatismyip.com, PLUS ur port number, by default it is 3389.
if u r connecting within the network then all u need is the internal ip address, which u can find by typing “ipconfig”, without quotes, in command prompt and ur port number too.

Graeme said on : May 30th, 2008 at 4:02 am

Hello

I followed the above advice, and couldn’t get it to work.
Then I went back into the router set up area, and added a custom service (called it RemoteDesktop) and used your settings (TCP, 3389, 3389, 3389) to Port Forwarding, not Port Triggering. Now it works fine, without having to append the port number (3389) to the public IP address.

Anu said on : June 3rd, 2008 at 9:47 am

Good day mate,

No doubt it is wonderful presentation inorder to show how to connect two PC’s together via RDC.
I have an another question:
” I have my office far away from home where I use 3 diffrent pc’s. I can login to a random pc via RDC by using global IP but, I want to log in to a specific pc over that network (suppose x.x.x.3). how to do that?”
I hope i made myself clear…of not please let me know

Cheers mate

Thanks

AmericaV6 said on : June 3rd, 2008 at 2:59 pm

I know hot to set up Remote Desktop Connection with a router but
How do I connect without a router?…

akishore said on : June 3rd, 2008 at 5:02 pm

Anu, you can login into multiple computers using remote desktop, but you have to change the remote desktop listening port from the default 3389 to something else.

Then you have to set up port forwarding on the router so that the new port, i.e. 3390 points to the other IP address. Finally you have to type in xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:3390 when typing in the IP address of the computer. Does that make sense?

AmericaV6 – Is your computer connected directly to the cable modem? Can you explain your setup? I am guessing you have a cable modem and then it’s connected to the computer itself instead of the router.

In that case, you should be able to just use your public IP address and connect in. You can figure out the public IP by going to whatismyip.com. Does that help?

AmericaV6 said on : June 3rd, 2008 at 8:55 pm

Akishore,
I have a computer that’s connected directly to the cable modem…
Thanks for your quick response.

rajkalyan said on : June 22nd, 2008 at 1:12 pm

Alan: That doesn’t work i tell you!!
I tried it and it still doesn’t work!

mike said on : July 10th, 2008 at 11:57 am

OK I am Reading and following along. My question is this:

I have a network server in the office with the address of XX.XXX.XX.X which a router is conneted to and that gives me the address of 192.168.xx.xx, I can not remote connect to my office computer, Why – how can I do this?

mike said on : July 11th, 2008 at 9:46 am

Sorry Still have a question:

Like I stated above my public IP is XX.XX.XXX.1
my IP from the router is XXX.XXX.X.2. I have changed the router to forward the port XXX.XXX.X.2 unsing starting 3389 and ending 3389, My question is what ip do i use to connect .1 or .2 :3389? PLease help I can not connect

Thanks
MIke

tony said on : July 20th, 2008 at 5:08 pm

I have 2 ISP (I am evaluating the both then I will give up one). I have Windows XP Home and Windows XP Professional on the other. One is connected via Modem/cable and the other connected via broadband telephone line. I have no routers or servers just direct connections to the LAN port on the PC. I followed your directions and still unable to connect. Please help. Thanks.

BrianL said on : July 30th, 2008 at 7:46 am

I did everything listed here to include allowing access, allowing RD in my firewall, added service in port forwarding (left port at 3389), etc. I can get control of the desktop using the 192.168.1.3 while on my LAN. I can also access the XX.XXX.XX.XXX:3389 from within my LAN. However, I cannot access the RD from outside my LAN. Any thoughts?

brandan said on : August 31st, 2008 at 7:39 pm

you mention buying software as a necessary alternative for remote gui computer management, but there are plenty of free and open source alternatives based on vnc. the most popular (as far as i know) is ultravnc, located at http://www.uvnc.com/.

rayaluvas said on : September 29th, 2008 at 1:06 am

I want to know how to shutdown and restart a pc in same network by using ip address or name. I tried in one way ie. by using cmd prompt and typing shutdown -i and adding the ip address, but that is showing access is denied. please email me the way to do it.

bayron said on : November 3rd, 2008 at 3:48 am

help! i have two computers at home but i just can access 1 from work!! i tried to add another service ,port triggering says service is in use ? so how can i add more comps? the only thing i did was change the service name and the ip address! but i was not able to add the service help please!!

Matt said on : November 10th, 2008 at 6:33 pm

In the remote tab of system properties I do not have the “Remote desktop” only Remote Assistance. How can I get the remot assistance. Using XP Ho0me Addition Version 2002 service Pack 3. When I try to install RDC from disk it says there is a version already installed.

Bob said on : December 26th, 2008 at 8:43 pm

Hi, appreciate all the info you’ve presented here. I felt that I was being monitored remotely and I went through your page on how to detect that but came up empty. Then I noticed the link you had for Remote Desktop and looked it over. It occurred to me that the problem was likely a previous roommate who had physical access to my computer while living with me and now might be using Remote Desktop to screw with me. It was a simple matter to simply uncheck Remote Desktop / Remote Assistance and to block other computers from accessing remotely. Problem solved I think! (fingers crossed anyways)

Bob

Denise said on : January 4th, 2009 at 4:03 pm

I have Windows XP SP3, is there something different that I have to do to get connected to my office. I have gone through all the steps you gave and I get “This computer can’t connect to the remote computer” HELP!!!

Pandin said on : January 7th, 2009 at 1:51 am

I am able to connect my remote system via limited user accounts but i cannot access its administrator account,Tell me how can i connect my host computer for remote administration through administrator account in windowsxp
Thanks in advance.

James said on : March 5th, 2009 at 12:47 pm

Hello there. This is James from Nairobi, Kenya. This is one of the best and crystal clear tutorials I have ever read. I’ve followed everything step by step and its all worked. I’m just giving credit where it’s due. Keep up the good work.You may want to consider getting a job as a Professor in a University or some other academic institution. If all instructors were like you, the world would be better educated.

Randy Norton said on : March 28th, 2009 at 5:13 pm

I have a laptop computer, running Windows XP service pack 3 through a Linksys router. My System Properties window doesn’t look like yours. It doesn’t have the second half available like your picture shows. Remote Assistance is there, but the Remote Desktop part is not there. In other windows, it seems to be configured to allow Remote Desktop, but nothing spelled out specifically. Is that a problem, or am I missing something on my computer? I’m pretty sure I’ve got all my numbers correct and lined up in the right places. Thank you for what you’re doing.

Remote Control Software said on : April 14th, 2009 at 10:00 am

I’d like to recommend another Remote Desktop Control Application: Proxy Pro 6. I use this at my work as security is at the forefront of everything we do. I like this service because it caters to businesses that have high security needs. Plus they have an extensive list of features.

Great said on : April 30th, 2009 at 8:45 am

This is probably the best, simplest tutorial I have found on this subject. You write clearly and plainly. Well done.

shron wallace said on : May 30th, 2009 at 9:59 am

I don’t have an option under remote desktop to allow other users to connect remotely to my computer. What can I do?

J.T. Kiser said on : August 1st, 2009 at 8:16 am

It should also be mentioned that…according to Microsoft…RDC cannot be used with XP Home Edition…

Just thought I’d throw that in…

Gary Moline PE said on : September 16th, 2009 at 1:14 pm

Yeah, now I don’t have to run upstairs to set up printing from my laptop when I’m not in my home office. Remote desktop is great!

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