Remote Desktop ports

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bill L
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Bill L

Can anyone tell me which ports the Remote Desktop cleint
uses from a Win98 PC to connect to another WinXP PC? I'm
trying to open the correct port on a firewall so the
Win98 PC can get out through the Pix. I tried 3389, the
default with no luck. I have tested the connection to the
WinXP from another location without a firewall and it
works fine. Thanks for any help.

Bill
 
I use Remote Desktop to get to my home machine from my
work machine. The only port I had to open on my router at
home was 3389, pointing it down to the appropriate
internal IP and everything worked great.
 
3389, TCP is it.

I'm not familiar with opening Pix--mess with it a bit, it should work. The
target port will be 3389, TCP. Not sure what the source port will be--if
you need to specify, should select "any."
 
The source port can be anything since it always changes.

Jeffrey Randow (Windows Net. & Smart Display MVP)
(e-mail address removed)

Please post all responses to the newsgroups for the benefit
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Remote Networking Technology Support Site -
http://www.remotenetworktechnology.com
Smart Display Support - http://www.smartdisplays.net
Windows XP Expert Zone - http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
 
Jeffery,

Does it use a range of ports? I can't find any info
regarding the ports on the client side. They all refer to
the XP machine's ports for coming in; with 3389 being the
default. I have connected from home to this XP machine,
but when I try to connect from the site with the 98 PC,
the Cisco Pix is blocking those outgoing ports. Even a
range of ports may help my situation. Thanks for the
replys.
 
What are the choices in the Pix configuration?

I think the "from" port can be pretty much anything--in the ranges above
1000.
1001-->65536?
 
Ok, I'm just throwing out some ideas... since it more
than likely picks a random port, could I use netstat or a
similiar tool to find the ports it may be using? Is this
a reliable method? I just connected here a few times and
saw a few differnt ports in the 2500 range. Maybe I'm way
off track here... please let me know.
 
I wouldn't go by an observed port. I looked at my own XP Pro here and see
4827--followed by 4874 for a second session. I don't think the source port
is defined except as "any."
 
I would suggest here that you check your pix configuration once more. Are
you defining an access list on the Outside and or/ inside interface of the
firewall? at both the interfaces, are you applying the policy as IN and/or
OUT? to enable Remote Desktop connection to establish successfully, you have
to pass the connection request, and the reply as well. So, one entry will be
"Source port=any, Dest port=3389", that would be from Win98 to XP direction.
Now another entry should be there to allow opposite direction traffic
"Source port=3389, Dest. port= any" this is in the direction from XP to
Win98. Also, you have to make sure that the PIX has no previous entries that
contradict with these settings (since the first appearing entries will apply
and override later ones). A last point to consider is whether the PIX does
NAT as well or not (is your WinXP behind the Firewall?, does it have a
private IP address, or a real IP address?). This last step is necessary if
you have the Remote Desktop Server Station (Host side not Client), behind
the PIX firewall, so that incoming connection requests to port 3389 will be
directed to the WinXP Private IP address.

I hope this is not too late to help.
 
I don't know whether it is too late for this thread, but thanks much for
posting this clear information--it'll get read by others, I suspect.
 
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