Remote desktop over blocked network

[Techknowledge]

Dears,

I have this challenge and wish your advice and guidance.
I would like to be able to connect to my home PC using remote desktop (microsoft remote desktop).

1) I'm connected to the internet using Wimax technology. The ISP does not provide me a public IP.

2) When I check what IP am I using (through whatismyip), I get the IP of my ISP. When I ping, I get no response.

3) How can I achieve remote desktop in such a situation (knowing I have no public IP)

FYI:

I know there are services such as no-ip that provides host names to IP, but question, how will the services know what my local IP if they will only see me through my ISP IP.

 

[Fardringle]

In your situation, normal Remote Desktop is not going to work. Logmein or Gotomypc (I prefer Logmein) are your best choices. They will let you connect to your home computer regardless of your ISP or IP address.

 

[SecurityTheatre]

Unless you have access to the router/firewall that does the NAT (Network Address Translation) from external->Internal addresses, you will not be able to use normal RDP.

If you have a router in your home that is the one doing this NAT, you may be able to configure port forwarding on it, but in many places, wireless networks that deploy NAT have the router on the carrier's side, in which case, you have no control over it.

 

[Techknowledge]

In your situation, normal Remote Desktop is not going to work. Logmein or Gotomypc (I prefer Logmein) are your best choices. They will let you connect to your home computer regardless of your ISP or IP address.

That's exactly what I wish to know. How come Logmein or GoToMyPC works, while other solutions don't. What technique or technology are they using? If I have a private IP, and my router doesn't do the NATTing but rather it is done by my mobile carrier which I have no control, then how does logmein or GoToMyPC get to my internal PC. Isn't communication IP to IP, and how do they know my internal IP.

That's the question I wish to learn

 

[PrincessFrosty]

I'm not 100% sure on the specifics but the bottom line is that.

1) RDC server is a passive service which simply listens on port 3389 for connections, if that port isn't forwarded from your external IP through your router/firewall to the machine you want to connect to then the connection simply cannot be made.

2) Logmein and other similar solutions actively punch a hole through security outwards by tunneling out to the logmein servers which then make a note of which connections are active. When you run the client it connects to logmein.com first to see what computers have managed to tunnel out of the network and are reachable.

Simply put RDC is passive, it just listens. Logmein is proactive the server component on the target PC tunnels out of the network. RDC is a fine solution if you're in control of your networks routing/firewall.

 

[Techknowledge]

Thanks PrincessForty. Your explanation is clear.

 

[SecurityTheatre]

I'm not 100% sure on the specifics but the bottom line is that.

1) RDC server is a passive service which simply listens on port 3389 for connections, if that port isn't forwarded from your external IP through your router/firewall to the machine you want to connect to then the connection simply cannot be made.

2) Logmein and other similar solutions actively punch a hole through security outwards by tunneling out to the logmein servers which then make a note of which connections are active. When you run the client it connects to logmein.com first to see what computers have managed to tunnel out of the network and are reachable.

Simply put RDC is passive, it just listens. Logmein is proactive the server component on the target PC tunnels out of the network. RDC is a fine solution if you're in control of your networks routing/firewall.

This is accurate and well described.