Using Dynamic DNS to Access Your Network
If you want to use Remote
Desktop via the Internet regularly, constantly monitoring your dynamic
IP address can be a pain, particularly if you forget to check it before
heading out of the office. A useful solution is to sign up with a
dynamic domain name system DNS (DDNS) service, which supplies you with a
static domain name. The service also installs a program on your
computer that monitors your IP address and updates the service’s DDNS
servers to point your domain name to your IP address. Here are some DDNS
services to check out:
DynDNS (www.dyndns.org)
TZO (www.tzo.com)
No-IP.com (www.no-ip.com)
D-Link (www.dlinkddns.com)
However, you may not want
to rely on a program to keep your network external IP address and your
domain name synchronized. For example, you may want to turn off the
computer when you’re away from home or the office. In that case, most
routers offer a DDNS feature that will handle this for you. You specify
your DDNS provider, your domain name, and your logon data, and the
router does the rest. Figure 1 shows an example.
Configuring a Network Computer for Remote Administration
You
can use Windows’ remote administration tools to work with remote
computers from the comfort of your own PC. Remote administration tools
mostly use the Remote Procedure Call (RPC) protocol to communicate with
the remote computer. RPC enables a local computer to run a program on a
remote computer. For this to happen successfully, you must configure an
exception in the remote computer’s firewall that allows RPC traffic.
Here are the steps to follow:
1. | In Windows 7, select Start and type command.
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2. | Right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as Administrator. The User Account Control dialog box appears.
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3. | Enter your UAC credentials to open the Administrator command line.
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4. | At the prompt, enter the following command:
netsh firewall set service type=remoteadmin mode=enable |
