How to RDP into a desktop behind VPN?

Question

I have a home desktop and a work desktop. Both are Windows 10 PCs. Occasionally, I would like to RDP to my work desktop using my home desktop. This is doable when I am connected via VPN. But, due to some issues, I do not want to use the VPN to RDP. Is there any way I can RDP into my work desktop? Is there some possibility of port forwarding? How would I set this up?

P.S -> I am aware of apps like TeamViewer, etc, but, what I've seen is the plain Microsoft RDP gives the best experience.

Answer 1

Set up portforwarding of TCP/UDP port of 3389 which is RDP port number. Map this to your work desktop.

Then what you would need to do is just type on your home laptop your work router's IP address through remote desktop client or using remote desktop manager.

If you require steps you would need to specify your router or firewall above so I can try and help with that.

But in essence these are the steps:

• Get your work external ip address
• Login to your router / firewall
• Add a rule to NAT or portforwarding of TCP/UDP 3389 to the internal ip address of your work computer
• Enable remote desktop connections on your work computer (this should already be enabled seeing as you do this anyway though VPN).
• Check windows internal firewall allows external connections to remote desktop on both your home and work desktops.
• Open your home computer fire up remote desktop client and type your work's external IP address
• Should get a login prompt to your desktop and log in.

As you can see there are lots of steps to get this up and running but this should work.

You could also look at something like LOGMEIN, but it's paid for. This essentially connects the route for you through good old port 443 (HTTPS) and does the routing for you. But it's paid for... :(

Let me know how you get on.

Answer 2

Try Windows Internet Computer Names. I've never used it myself, but description sounds promising. This should do exactly what you want to achieve. Allow to RDP into windows machine behind NAT without port forwarding. Supported by Windows Vista and higher. below I will paste the instructions copied from Microsoft TechNet:

To configure a secured name, do the following:

• From the Windows Vista desktop, click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator.
• When prompted with a User Account Control message box, click Continue.
• In the Administrator: Command Prompt window, type the following command: netsh p2p pnrp peer set machine publish=start autopublish=enable
• Close the Administrator: Command Prompt window

Remote Desktop can work with Windows Internet Computer Names. To enable Remote Desktop, do the following:

• From the Windows Vista desktop, click Start, right-click Computer, and then click Properties.
• Under Tasks, click Remote settings.
• When prompted with a User Account Control message box, click Continue.
• In the Remote Desktop section of the System Properties window, click Allow connections from computers running any version of Remote Desktop, and then - click OK.
• Close the System window.

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