Multiple PCs to use same port-- how to forward?

lazyart

Just as the title suggests:

I've got two but soon to be 4 machines on my network. Lets say I wanted to use remote desktop to access any of the machines. How would I forward ports to make this happen? Heck, how would I specify which machine I was accessing? I know there has to be a way since all machines use port 80 for http and the router can sort them out. Is this a limitation of my hardware (Netgear RT314) that lacks the settings?

lazyart

Hmmm... guess i can answer my own question--

designate one machine and forward port 3389 to it. Once on that machine, lauch remote desktop remotely to access intranetworked PCs.

Even still.. what if i wanted to play a multiplayer game on the same port with multiple PCs at once? Am I out of luck??

ajs1976

There is probably a better way to do this, but for RDP, search the MS Knowledge base for Change RDP and you will find the article on where to change the port in the registry. Set a static IP address on your pc. Create a port mapping on your router from your external IP on the new port to the IP address of the client pc and the new port.

From outside your network open remote desktop and type in the external IP address with a :newport on the end.

RussS

Lets get this straight ...

You have computer A - which you would like to be able to remote to computers B, C & D???

Normally what I do in a similar situation is use different remote programs - either that or reconfigure the program to use dufferent ports.
That is of course if I am working across multiple networks.

If I am on the same network I just go for the IP address of the machine I want to control (of course that means static IPs).

sab4you

You can address this problem in 2 different ways, but eventually you will need to open more ports in your firewall eitherway.

Method #1) On each computer change the port terminal services listens to. Then on the firewall open up each port and port forward to the computer listening on that port

Method #1 example
Firewall accepts port 3390, 3390,3391
Any request to port 3389 is forwarded to computer A, port 3389
Any request to port 3390 is forwarded to computer B, port 3390
Any request to port 3391 is forwarded to computer C, port 3391

Search microsoft to change the port terminal services works on - its a smart idea anyways for security if you are allowing this port open on the internet. Secondly when you use terminal services client you simply append a colon and port number, i.e. "Computername:port"

Method #2) If your firewall supports port forwarding and translation, you can have it listen on multiple ports and for each port it forwards/translates to the specific computer.

Method #2 example:
Firewall accepts ports 3389,3390,3391
Any request to port 3389 is forwarded to computer A, port 3389
Any request to port 3390 is forwarded to computer B, port 3389
Any request to port 3391 is forwarded to computer C, port 3389

Or as you already found out, you can have 1 server accept your initial terminal services through the firewall. Once your inside the network you can then terminal services to any other computer inside your network accepting connections.

As I said, if you are using any remote services access to the internet its just a bright idea to use a non standard port anyways. Reason being any moron can scan your IP and see port 3389 open and know automatically its a windows terminal services server and then start hammering windows logons to it or attempt to listen in and know what to look for. If you switch it to port 5867 or something totally random they wouldnt know how to communicate with this port as easy, they wouldnt know what to look for if listening in, etc.

lazyart

changing port numbers looks like the way to go. I was discussing remote desktop with a friend of mine-- an overly simple administrator password leaves you pretty exposed. I dont know if SP2 closes remote desktop by default, but it would be nice if it did.