rdesktop not working.

Hi,

I downloaded and installed rdesktop successfully on my Macbook. I have set up remote desktop on a Windows desktop in my office. I tested rdesktop in my office (there, both my Macbook and the Windows desktop are connected to the same network) and things worked fine. However, when I try to connect to the desktop from home, nothing happens. Could someone please help me with this?

Thanks!

Have you got access to your work network from home? Most business require a VPN (Virtual Private Network) connection to allow remote management of anything on the site.

Most places have a firewall that will manage traffic in and out of the local network, a VPN will normally talk to that (or another designated host) and that is how you will get access to that network.

From there your RDP client should work.

Good Luck.

Well, I checked the firewall settings for my office LAN and Remote Desktop is added as an exception to the firewall. I assumed that should be enough. Is there anything else that I should check?

It's your firewall, this is proven by the fact that it works on a local network. What ports did you allow and how?

Are you entering the local or public IP address in the client software on your Mac?

Aptmunich said:

Are you entering the local or public IP address in the client software on your Mac?

Click to expand...

yea, could be a NAT/IP issue as well.

I added the program "Remote Desktop" to the list of exceptions for the firewall and associated it with a TCP port with scope set to "Any".

About the IP address, I realize I was using the local one I found using "ipconfig" on my desktop! I just tried using my public IP address with the port number and rdesktop says "Connection refused". I am able to ping the public IP address, so I'm not sure what the issue is. Maybe I should just contact my network admin.

hkp said:

I added the program "Remote Desktop" to the list of exceptions for the firewall and associated it with a TCP port with scope set to "Any".

About the IP address, I realize I was using the local one I found using "ipconfig" on my desktop! I just tried using my public IP address with the port number and rdesktop says "Connection refused". I am able to ping the public IP address, so I'm not sure what the issue is. Maybe I should just contact my network admin.

Click to expand...

Your companies firewall / router needs to be configured to allow connections via the port you selected and any requests to that port need to be forwarded to your office computer's local IP address.

However, that's quite a security risk (lots of remote apps transfer data unencrypted and leave both machines vulnerable to attacks), so you either need to establish a VPN connection to secure the data or make sure the remote connection is encrypted (Apple Remote Desktop can use SSL encryption for example).

Ah, ok! Thanks, that information helps me a lot.