Difference between ports 3389 and 1723

[jack]

I am in the process of setting up a VPN between my laptop
(XP Home) and the "main" PC (XP Pro) on my home network,
which is behind a Linksys BEFSR41 Cable/DSL router. My
primary objective is to use Remote Desktop from the
traveling laptop to access files and applications residing
on the "main" PC. I am using the no-ip utility to map a
static name to my dynamic IP address. I'm approaching this
a step at a time and have successfully established Remote
Desktop sessions by dialing the host pc directly (direct
modem to modem connection) and also through the public
internet by temporarily moving the main PC out from behind
the router. However, I really want to do this through a
VPN into the home network and I've been banging away at
this for several hours. I am using Bob Cerelli's VPN
Server/Client instructions and Sooner Al's "Port
Forwarding for Multiple PC Remote Desktop Access"
instructions to help me better understand the Linksys and
MS XP documentation I have.

I do not use ICF, and I have turned off ZoneAlarm on the
main PC while I set this up. I will probably want to
activate ICF at some point.

I think I'm extremely close to the solution, but still
can't make the VPN connection. My only question right now
is what is the difference between the apparently
conflicting instructions to map to Port 3389 and 1723?
What's the difference between 3389 and 1723, and which one
applies to my objectives?

 

[David Jones]

conflicting instructions to map to Port 3389 and 1723?

What's the difference between 3389 and 1723, and which one
applies to my objectives?

3389 is the port used by Remote Desktop.
1723 is the port used by Point to Point Tunneling
Protocol (PPTP) aka VPN.

You don't need 3389 open if you're VPNing first, unless
you want to allow Remote Desktop access without first
connecting the VPN.

 

[jack]

I finally got this configured and working, but I did have
to open both ports, even though I'm establishing the VPN
connection first.