Linksys WRT54GS and remote desktop

[DeafBug]

I am trying to use my wireless card. First, I set up my router to make sure that I can do remote desktop from the office with my wired card. Then I swapped it with wireless card and then it doesn't work anymore. Everything is the same. IP address and all that. I even went to Add/Remove Hardware and removed the wired card so that the settings are gone as XP Pro gives you a warning that the IP address is already assigned (to the wired card.) Now I have moved my PC into another room in the house and I can't do wired connection. I can connect to my PC from the laptop in the house as it is on the same network. I just can't from work or my mother's house. Is there something else I missed? I thought about getting my other XP Pro setup and make it wired just for "double-checking" if it is really the router or not. But I thought I ask you before I waste time and hit a dead ead.But the thing that strikes me is that how do you do port forwarding on the router? Does it strictly go by port or by IP. I know my old SMC Barricade setup is different. Based on the request of the IP address it forwards it to the port that the IP address is expected to be connected to. But with the Linksys router, I don't know. Wireless is not connected to a port. As mentioned in the subject my router is Linksys WRT54GS. I have 3 XP Pro machines. Two PCs and one laptop. (Plus the wife's Powerbook running Tiger.) My wife wants to know how to connect to her XP Pro as well from the Powerbook. We downloaded the Remote Desktop for Mac. But like me, it only works locally. And FWIW, I changed my PC registry for the Remote Desktop port number so it doesn't conflict with my wife's. And the damnest thing happened, I had to re-register XP and the Product Activitation red flagged me. But I had no problems. It didn't complain just accepted and approved it. I could only think that it is not 120 days yet as I upgraded my CPU more almost 4 months ago. I just want my remote desktop to work from the office and at my mothers.

[Peachy]

DeafBug,Can you be a little more clear? When you say "office", is this a physically remote location or is this somewhere else in your house?As for port forwarding, you only require this when trying to access your LAN from the WAN side, i.e., the Internet. You would for example, for Remote Desktop specify the IP address (192.168.1.x) of the computer that is the target and also the TCP port 3389. Additionally, you would need the external IP address of your broadband modem. That's the IP address you would connect to.

[DeafBug]

Peachy, Office is where the place where I work at to earn a living. I have used remote desktop many times in the past. It worked with the same router before I switched from wired to wireless. Now with wireless, it doesn't work. To simplify, lets focus on one PC, I know my WAN IP. All PCs on the home network has static IP. So at the office, I type the WAN IP : 3389. My router port forwarding is setup to 192.168.1.100 with TCP 3389. It worked with wired method from anywhere. After I removed the wired NIC and installed the wireless NIC, I removed the hardware settings for the wired NIC. I configured the wireless NIC to the same as what the wired NIC was. I could access the internet and see other computers on the home network. I took my laptop and connect to my PC remotely (on the home network) and no problems either by computer name or IP address. Then the next day at the office, I typed the WAN IP :3389 and I get the message that the client cannot connect to the remote computer.Any ideas? I realize this will take several days to resolve this issue as I can check any changes I made the next day from the office.

Edited July 6, 2005 by DeafBug

[Peachy]

Is it possible that at home, the wireless interface has some how disconnected itself from the router when you were trying to remote into that PC? I don't know how you would be able to check it without physically being at home. However, there is another way to test this when at home if your broadband ISP allows you dial-up access. I think this only applies if you have DSL. However, if you have access to a dial-up account, then connect the laptop to the Internet over dial-up and then see if you can remote into the home PC.

[DeafBug]

More information. I have Comcast broadband. I highly doubt that the router would disconnect if I am already at home with the other laptop.I had my friend at his office try to connect to my computer and he gets the same message so I know it is not my company blocking it. I know it is hard to test it remotely without having someone on the other end reporting what they are seeing. Maybe I can have him help me a little from his house as he also has Comcast.I bought the router and replaced it with my old router as it was on sale. 3 weeks later, I bought two wireless NICs and replaced them. So that was pretty much the timeline here. Doesn't the router log some information? I am wondering if the router is block something external as it is fine with internal use. I didn't change the default settings on the router other than the SSID and encryption and port forwarding.

[DeafBug]

Is it possible that at home, the wireless interface has some how disconnected itself from the router when you were trying to remote into that PC?

How can I insure that it is not disconnected? I have a screensaver that comes on in 15 minutes then the monitor shuts off in 30 minutes. But the system and hard drives stay on. Now that I think about it. I am not quite sure. I mean there were times that I haven't touched the PC when I got home and I used the laptop to connect to the PC to check my mail. I didn't have problems connecting.

[Peachy]

Is there any reason why you want the PC to have a wireless connection if it already has a wired one?

[JackR]

As a long shot.1. Make sure that your Wireless client card is always ON, no power saving or similar selection. The settingit usually an entry in the Cards. Properties.2. MAC number, new card new MAC. It might be that the Router is associating the traffic with IP and MAC number and it is still having the Wired card’s MAC.

Edited July 7, 2005 by JackR

[DeafBug]

Peachy, Yes there is a reason why it is wireless and not wired. We moved the computer from downstairs to upstairs. I am not drilling holes or anything with the house as we plan to move in a year or two. The cablemodem is downstairs so it the router. JackR, I thought about using the MAC address thing but right now it is disabled. Don't know if it will make any difference. Also see my earlier post on how I thought if power saving could be affected but no. I am going to poke around on the router.

[lewmur]

Peachy,  Yes there is a reason why it is wireless and not wired.  We moved the computer from downstairs to upstairs.  I am not drilling holes or anything with the house as we plan to move in a year or two. The cablemodem is downstairs so it the router. JackR, I thought about using the MAC address thing but right now it is disabled.  Don't know if it will make any difference.  Also see my earlier post on how I thought if power saving could be affected but no. I am going to poke around on the router.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

First of all, I'm assuming that the wireless cards are connecting to the Internet? If so, you can trouble shoot the Remote Access right at home. First, make sure you can Remote Access one computer from the other using the LAN IP address. This eliminates the router firewall from the equation and any ISP blocking. If this works, then try the WAN IP address. I use VNC but any remote access program should work. Edited July 6, 2005 by lewmur

[DeafBug]

Thank you Lewmur. That was a brilliant idea. I was able to resolve it. I found out that the port forwarding must have a range on the router. The online help doesn't say that. Actually the help is outdated as many of the terms don't match with the screen. So I can connect using my WAN IP at home from my laptop. I will give it a shot tomorrow at the office.

[lewmur]

Thank you Lewmur.  That was a brilliant idea. I was able to resolve it.  I found out that the port forwarding must have a range on the router.  The online help doesn't say that.  Actually the help is outdated as many of the terms don't match with the screen.  So I can connect using my WAN IP at home from my laptop.  I will give it a shot tomorrow at the office.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Great. If you can connect through the WAN IP at home, it should work from anywhere.

[ChrisC]

I'm having the exact same problem, and I can't figure out exactly what Deafbug means by "port forwarding must have a range on the router."Can anyone help?

[DeafBug]

Assuming you have the same router, there are two fields for the port numbers, Start and End. They need to be filled in. You can't have one field filled. So for remote desktop, I have 3389 populated in the Start and End fields. Of course, you need to have a static IP address on your computer that you want forward the network packets to. Fill that last portion of the IP address under IP address column. Also I found out the Application column can't be blank. I just filled it with 3389 even though it is meaningless to me. I can see it in a business world filling it for FTP, HTTP, Mail, etc. All fields on that row should be populated and the Enabled checkbox checked. Save Changes. That is how it works for me.

[ChrisC]

Hmm, well, I've done all that -- in fact, my setup has always been that way. Still, RDing to the machine works when it is wired, but not wireless.Any other help will be appreciated. :- )

[grebdlog]

Followed steps here for using Remote Desktop through router, works with no problem. We have multiple PCs, suppose I want to enable more than one for Remote Desktop through the router. Can I pick an arbitrary port number -- say 3390 -- enable it for a second home PC and specify it on the Remote Desktop client as part of the target IP address (e.g., 100.xxx.xxx.xxx:3390)?