Remote Connection help

[Decrypter]

Hi. Hope someone can help.

I need to connect to my company computer. I want to do it remotely. I have one main server computer ,where I can add E-mail addresses etc, and many other computers which my staff use.

Am I correct in saying that if I remotely want to connect to the main server PC all I need is the IP address or the hostname. Then just login from there.

Also, my staff have IP addresses like 192.168.x.x. If staff want to access their computer how do they do that?

Thanks for help

[clanmills]

192.168.x.y addresses are used by the local networks (LAN) and are invisible from the internet (WAN).

My company uses VPN (Virtual Private Network) to connect from home to the office. I believe this establishes a secure (encrypted) channel. Once you connect with VPN you'll be able to see the other machines from home. Connecting from home is simple - you can use the Network assistant to setup a permanent shortcut on your desktop. Double click, logon, and you're part of the office. All the 192.168.x.y machines will be visible and you can print, vnc and so on.

The office has to publish the VPN service on an address that's visible on the internet. It'll be something like vpn.yourcompany.com I didn't set this up, so I'm not sure how this is done - however your IT support people will know.

[wimiadmin]

I agree VPN would be the best way to connect.

However, an alternate method is to assign internal static IPs to the computers that people would like to access from the outside. If they're windows boxes, the default remote desktop port RDP is 3389. That port can be changed in the registry.

Let's say you leave the server at the default 3389 port. Then to connect remotely you would simply enter the external IP address in mstsc (Microsoft Terminal Services Client). For another computer, let's say you changed the RDP to 3390. Then, in mstsc, you would enter the external IP:3390 so it would look like 66.88.12.44:3390. On the router at work, you'd need to forward port 3390 to the appropriate computer.

Then just keep going.

[AboveTheLogic]

If you setup a VPN (which is the best way to go, IMO, and its pretty easy), just make sure your work network and home networks aren't BOTH using 192.168.1.x.

If they are you will likely have IP address conflicts. If you setup a VPN, I recommend changing the work IPs to something like 192.168.75.x, which is relatively simple to do in the router settings.