[cradl]

I live in a different state than relitives and I often find myself doing all kinds of phone support for them. What is the best or easiest way for me to be able to log on to there computer and see what is going on and fix the isssues??

[Advertisements]

Remote Desktop and Remote Assistance both use the same protocol, RDP. If that is working then I would stick with that as it tends to perform better than VNC.

[Titan8990]

Remote Desktop and Remote Assistance both use the same protocol, RDP. If that is working then I would stick with that as it tends to perform better than VNC.

[cradl]

So how do I set that up and which one to use to work on computers across states. Do I need their ip addresses? I'm amusuming set me up as host and theres as clients?

[Titan8990]

Are they behind a networking device such as a router?

[cradl]

Yes they are and so am I.

[Titan8990]

Sorry for the delay. Have you used Remote Desktop before?


In order for you to able to access their computer via RDP they need forward the RDP port on their router. This is done via the router configuration paged. Often it is called "Port forwarding" and on my router it is the "Applications and Gaming" tab. Also, all security features on the router will most likely need to be turned off.

Their computer needs a static IP. To assign a static IP you will go to Start -> Control Panel -> Network Connections, Right click the connections they are using (typically listed as "Local Area Connection" if it is wired) and go to properties. From the properties menu click on TCP/IP and properties again. Here change the setting from automatic to manual and assign the computer an IP.

To make things easier you can assign it the IP address that it currently has. To find out this IP address go to Start -> Run -> Type "cmd"

From the command prompt type "ipconfig"

This will tell you the computers current IP info. Copy this info into the manual entry for the TCP/IP properties.


Now that the computer has a static IP address you can forward the RDP port to the newly assigned IP. The port your are forward is TCP port 3389.

Don't forget to turn off any firewall or anonymous request blocking feature of the router.


Now they can find their external ip by going to http://whatismyip.com. The address they get from there is the address you will use when connecting to their machine.

I hope I explained that well enough. If you need any more assistance feel free to ask.