Terminal Services Client over Router?

[felixdd]

I'm about to leave on a two-month excursion -- but have no intentions of being disconnected from "home base". I use my HPC to connect to my XP (pro) box through Terminal Services Client (TSC); and when I implement wireless on my home network my PPC will also be connected.

I installed pcAnywhere and fiddled around with it, but am disappointed with the lackluster performance it provides. TSC is lightning fast compared to it.

My question: is it possible to remotely connect to my home computer with TSC through my router? My desktop's IP is static so that should make things simple. Is the task as simple as setting up a virtual server on my router? Or do I have to pay MS (as someone else had told me) big bucks to be able to do this?

[Ed Hansberry]

You should be able to open up port 3389 on your router and point that to your PC. That is the standard RDP port Microsoft uses for Terminal Services.

[felixdd]

Oops I forgot to add that I'm actually using "remote desktop sharing" on my XP to try to accomplish all this. Does it make a difference?

I'll try the port...thanks!

UPDATE: It appears to work -- I'm trying by using TSC to connect to my ISP-assigned IP, and it works. Can't wait to try it out of home!

[Ed Hansberry]

Remote Desktop in Windows XP Pro is just another name for terminal services. It is just a cripled version that only allows one connection at a time versus unlimited connections on a Windows 2000/2003 server product.

This is different from Remote Assistance found in XP Pro and XP Home. That is still using terminal services as the backbone (as does Fast User Switching) but you can't connect to it via a Pocket PC.

[Sooner Al]

...to Ed's comments, you can also do this through a VPN tunnel using the built-in PPTP VPN client, ie. run TSC to connect to a XP Pro Remote Desktop. The advantage of that is you can then access shared files and folders on your home LAN, use the TSC to access/control multiple XP Pro boxes running Remote Desktop and ActiveSync. All by only opening one port on the firewall/NAT/router...

http://www.oecadvantage.net/ajarvi/PpcVPN.html

[Ed Hansberry]

The VPN solution is a good one - XP Pro has a built in VPN server too. Just set up an advanced connection in the Connection manager. This will only work if your ISP allows incoming VPN requests - most don't as they don't want you to be a server of any sort, even for occasional use by a user. :?

[felixdd]

Activesync over the same router with my HPC? All the archived messages here describe this procedure only for the PPC. I've already got the appropriate ports set up, but just don't know how to configure the HPC to connect to it.

I suspect it has something to do with editing the registry (if on the PPC -- a la PocketHost). What exactly does PocketHost do and why is it a necessary step? Does it allow you to add a new activesync entry besides just "IR, Serial at 115K, Serial at 57600...etc."?