Hi There, One of my clients has asked me if I can set up a remote from his pc from home to work. This has been done already and is working fine. But now he wishes for his colleagues can do the same. I have tried to set this up but seems to be a failure! I have opened certain ports on the router such as 3389, 3390, 3391 and allocated the PC's IP address to the port. Also I have changed the port numbers on the computer through regedit and also allowed the connections through the firewall. For some reason it wont work. I am installing this on three windows 7 pc and 1 xp. If someone can help it will be great.

It really sounds like you should consider using a Remote Desktop Gateway if you want this functionality for several users. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=6D146124-E850-4CEC-9EFA-33A5225E155D&amp%3Bdisplaylang=en

Are they on a domain? Are there any actual servers in the mix (ie. 2003, 2008 or even 2000)? If so, consider using a VPN to connect them to their work network, then they can remote into any machine they please.

Hi Bob, They are on a domain. they have server 2003.. A couple of clients are using VPN but there other colleagues arent so IT skilled to use VPN. hense why they want to use microsoft RDP staright in to there PC. I will try the RDP Gateway or will this not work?

Yes it will, but it requires Windows Server 2008R2. If you have that then you're all set. The VPN is no big deal, you just have to configure the server to accept however many connections you need and then write down some fairly simple instructions for them on how to set up the connection on their home computers. A couple of icons on their desktops - one for the VPN and one for the Remote Desktop and it's all good.

If we installed Windows Server 2008R2 over 2003 as they were looking at this option already, at the moment they are running the domain trhough the server and there exchange email. Is there an easy way to install the 2008 server and keep all there exchange and network intact untouched?

Over 2003? Probably not. Your 2003 is most likely 32-bit and 2008r2 is 64-bit. But if you're running the 64-bit version of 2003 it might be possible. Along with 2003 but on a different box, yes. What I don't know is if 2008 can act as a DC on a 2003 domain; it can act as a member server though, which should fit your needs for the RDP Gateway. Exchange shouldn't have an issue as long as it's not installed on a DC (which it shouldn't be). The rest of the network should be fine. These are questions best answered in one of the server forums though.

No worries. I think its the VPN option will be the best, can you send me a link for a good VPN setup?

Here's one for Windows 7. XP and Vista are very similar. http://www.groovypost.com/howto/microsoft/setup-the-windows-7-vpn-client/ There are two things it doesn't mention though: 1. Based on what type of VPN you have you may have to go into the VPN's properties and change its type from Automatic to Point to Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP). 2. If the users want to be able to access the Internet while connected to the VPN you'll have to turn off the option to use the gateway on the remote network in the VPN connection's Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) Advanced settings.