Configure a Network for Multiple Remote Desktop Connections Center

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	Configure a Network for Multiple Remote Desktop Connections

Solution When using DNS2Go with Multiple Domains and the Domain Groups functionality its very likely you are looking to connect remotely to multiple computers at a single location via Remote Desktop. This is fairly easy to do:

First follow the steps in the Knowledge Base article titled Domain Groups to setup your domain groups.

Once the Group is created and functional, you are ready to setup the Remote Desktop on your network.

First, verify that Remote Desktop is enabled by following these steps:

The first step is to enable the remote desktop connection feature on each desired computer.

NOTE Windows XP Home Edition, Vista Home Basic & Premium do not support Remote Desktop. For those Operating Systems, another Remote Control Program instead of Remote Desktop.

When using Windows Vista, Click on Start then right-click Computer and select Properties. On the System window, click the Remote Settings link on the left. On the Remote tab, choose Allow in the Remote Desktop section.

To enable remote desktop in Windows XP, Windows 2003 & Windows 2000, Click on Start then right-click My Computer and select Properties. Select the Remote tab, check the allow option in the Remote Desktop option.

Now that Remote Desktop is Enabled on each computer you will need to ensure that each computer is listening on a different port. The reason for this is because the router can only listen and forward the request on the port 3389 (This is the default Remote Desktop port) to a single computer. It may be helpful to make a list of the computer you are wanting to connect to and the port that you are going to use. A rule of thumb is to increase the port by 1 per computer.

Example
Computer1 - Port 3389
Computer2 - Port 3390
Computer3 - Port 3391

After noting which computer will use which port number, change the default port of Remote Desktop in the Windows Registry:

1. Click on Start, and type regedit into the search box (Windows Vista) and hit Enter, or in XP, 2003 and 2000 click Run, enter regedit, and hit Enter.

2. On the left side of the Registry Editor, navigate to the following folder:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TerminalServer\WinStations\RDP-Tcp

3. On the right side, find and double-click the key named PortNumber

4. On the editing dialog box, Change the value to be Decimal

5. Type in the port number you noted for this computer, click OK, and then close the Registry Editor.

You will need to reboot this computer for this change to be effective.

You will need to make the above Registry change on every computer except for the one using port 3389 as this is the default port that Remote Desktop uses.

After making the changes on all the computers on your network these computers will be ready to accept the request on this port. You will also need to ensure that your Firewall / Router is configured for these ports and are going to forward them to the correct computer. Specific Instructions on this can be found at Port Forward.

Now the network is setup to accept the connections on these ports and route them to the correct computers! Now you need to specify the specific port when connecting from a computer outside of the network.

To do this you will need to open the Remote Desktop Client program. To do this you can click on Start then go to Programs then Accessories / Communications then select 'Remote Desktop Connection'.

In the Computer Field type in the domain name you wish to connect to followed by a colon ( : ) and then the specific port number you are using on that computer.

Example computer2.dns2go.com:3390

Then click on Connect and in a few moments, you should be connected to that specific computer.

Article Details

Article ID:

746

Created On:

May 18, 2010 03:00 PM