Connect to More Than 1 Computer On A Network?

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When I connect to my office from home with Remote Desktop, I often want to
connect to different computers on the office network (basic peer-to-peer,
Lynksys router). Is there a way to switch between hosts?

Currently, I go into the Lynksys Port Range Forwarding page and change the
IP addresses (if I know them... dynamic IP addresses and all). But I was
hoping there'd be a quicker way to switch.

TIA for any guidance.
 
John Ciccone said:
When I connect to my office from home with Remote Desktop, I often want to
connect to different computers on the office network (basic peer-to-peer,
Lynksys router). Is there a way to switch between hosts?

Currently, I go into the Lynksys Port Range Forwarding page and change the
IP addresses (if I know them... dynamic IP addresses and all). But I was
hoping there'd be a quicker way to switch.

TIA for any guidance.
Click to expand...

Give each host a unique port number.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306759/
 
Give each host a unique port number.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306759/
Click to expand...

Thank you. Unfortunately, this just won't work for me. I think the problem
is in the Linksys router configuration page. I can log into any computer as
long as I change the IP address on the Linksys port forwarding page. But the
idea is to be able to select which computer I log into via Remote Desktop.

I'm able to change the (listening) port of one of the machines in RegEdit.
But trying to hook up with Remote Desktop by adding colon + the new port
doesn't work. Can't connect.

I spent an hour on the phone with Linksys and I don't even think they knew
what I was talking about. I go into their config page and add port
forwarding to cover the other computer. To no avail.

Any idea on how to get some help with this one?
 
John Ciccone said:
Thank you. Unfortunately, this just won't work for me. I think the problem
is in the Linksys router configuration page. I can log into any computer
as
long as I change the IP address on the Linksys port forwarding page. But
the
idea is to be able to select which computer I log into via Remote Desktop.

I'm able to change the (listening) port of one of the machines in RegEdit.
But trying to hook up with Remote Desktop by adding colon + the new port
doesn't work. Can't connect.

I spent an hour on the phone with Linksys and I don't even think they knew
what I was talking about. I go into their config page and add port
forwarding to cover the other computer. To no avail.

Any idea on how to get some help with this one?
Click to expand...

You also have to open the non-standard ports in the firewall software
on the hosts. You need a separate entry in the router's forwarding
table for each computer that you want to access. It works fine.
I do it all of the time. I also don't use the default port (or anything
near it). Are you trying to connect to multiple machines at work
from home? If that is the case, it's the router at work that needs
to have the port forwarding table set up. Most companies would
not allow that. The company I worked for, before I retired, had a
VPN set up which allowed me to put my home computer directly
on the network at work.
 
John said:
You also have to open the non-standard ports in the firewall software
on the hosts. You need a separate entry in the router's forwarding
table for each computer that you want to access. It works fine.
I do it all of the time. I also don't use the default port (or anything
near it). Are you trying to connect to multiple machines at work
from home? If that is the case, it's the router at work that needs
to have the port forwarding table set up. Most companies would
not allow that. The company I worked for, before I retired, had a
VPN set up which allowed me to put my home computer directly
on the network at work.
Click to expand...

Thanks very much for your time, John. It's encouraging that you're able to
do this.

That KB article 306759 only says to shut down regedit after changing the
port number. Do you happen to know if you have to reboot too? If yes, don't
bother reading the rest. I'll reboot when I get back to the office tomorrow.

Yes, I did have two separate entries in the forwarding table. One with the
default port of 3389, the other I tried a bunch of different ports. So for
example (are you familiar with the Linksys router port forwarding config
page?):

- One line had ports 3388 to 3390, and the last three digits of the IP
address matched that of one machine (meaning in a DOS box I type "ipconfig"
and check the last three digits);

- Another line on this forwarding page had ports 3391 to 3393. The last
three digits matched the IP address of another machine. On this other
machine, I went into the registry and changed the PortNumber to 3392. I also
tried drastically different variations here;

- On Remote Desktop, I enter the IP address and it logs on to the first
machine with the default port number of 3389. All's well;

- Quit. Now in Remote Desktop, I enter the IP address + ":" + 3392. It won't
log on to the second machine. Error msg: "The client could not connect to the
remote computer. Remote connections might not be enabled..."
Are you trying to connect to multiple machines at work
from home?
Yes.

If that is the case, it's the router at work that needs
to have the port forwarding table set up.
Click to expand...

Yeah.

Any thoughts?

Thanks again.
 
hi,
on the second computer do you have firewall activated? if you change the
default port of terminal server you have to add exception on firewall with
the new port of terminal server.
 
Ouch. Dumb guy alert.
That KB article 306759 only says to shut down regedit
after changing the port number. Do you happen to know
if you have to reboot too? If yes, don't bother reading
the rest. I'll reboot when I get back to the office tomorrow.
Click to expand...

That was it. rebooted the system (that the port number was changed on) and
all works perfectly.

Thank you John and Dragos for your time and patience.
 
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