All you need to do is edit your host file on the laptop.
Right click on your shortcut to notepad in the programs menu and select Run as Administrator
In notepad select File -> Open
to open the file open dialog.
In the filter dropdown at the bottom right of the file open dialog select All Files (*.*)
Navigate to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc
and select the file named hosts
(it has no extension).
Add a new line to that file which looks like this:
192.168.1.1 pcname pcname.yourworkdomain.com
Replace 192.168.1.1
with the actual IP that the machine uses, replace both pcname
instances with the name you want to call that PC and replace yourworkdomain.com
with the actual domain used at work.
You may also want to set the target PC to use a static IP so that you don't ever need to change this. No restart is needed. It should work instantly upon save. As long as you don't name your PC something that is in use at work you shouldn't need to make any changes between work and home and it should just work.
Thank you, but if I gave it a static IP then I wouldn't need to use the name because I would always know what the IP is. – TheColonel26 – 2015-07-11T01:00:07.837
Also, If you want, you could do this for just one machine. Simply choose one machine at home that you'd be willing to give a static IP (it could even be a VM just for this if you want). Connect to that first and, from there, you 'll be able to RDP to any of the other machine easily. – krowe – 2015-07-11T05:54:02.907
A better option is to add rules to your DHCP server to reserve IPs for each machines MAC address. You may want to make a shortcut to open the host file as admin and update the file as needed. If your router supports 'Dynamic DNS' then that is the very best way to do this but if not (and you aren't running your own DNS server) then this is probably the best. – krowe – 2015-07-11T06:05:55.113
If you have multiple connections you could also just use the one you don't use at work to connect to your home workgroup (the settings you are using to add the suffix are connection specific). Even USB wifi would work for this. Alternatively, you could just go to that setting and edit the dialog to disable that setting until you get back to work. – krowe – 2015-07-11T06:12:45.937