Cannot get Remote Desktop to work on C7000-100NAS

[HailSkate2k5]

OK, so I have switched from the Motorola SURFboard 6850 to the C7000. I cannot get Remote Desktop to work from my Android or WP device.

The remote PC is listening on port 3389. I've had to manually open ports 80, 443, and 32400, and have verified that they were opened. I have to be missing a step somewhere.

[TheEther]

How about opening port 3389?

[HailSkate2k5]

Yes, 3389 is open.

I am going to update my original post because I failed to look at the clock (had to be somewhere else), and omitted some things.

[HailSkate2k5]

OK this is weird: I cannot seem to figure out how to edit my first post. 😞

So, I have a domain with 1&1 (domain.net, for example). I go to 1&1 and do a HTTP redirect to the IP address of my modem.

On my previous modem, a Motorola SURFboard 6850, opening ports was pretty straight-forward, though I don't have it hooked-up anymore, there was an extensive list of options to chose from (unlike the seriously anemic list in the C7000).

One of the machines I am trying to connect to is at xxx.xxx.x.99 (for example). In the Port Forwarding page on the previous modem, I put that info into "Local IP"; "Local Start Port" and "Local End Port" would be 3389; "External IP" would be 0.0.0.0; "External Start Port" and "External End Port" would be 3389; "Protocol" is TCP.

On the machine itself, we had to do a bit of editing in the Registry:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\WinStations\RDP-Tcp]

"PortNumber"=dword:00000d3d

Also on the machine, IP4/IP6 were enabled in the NIC adapters.

Finally, using MS Remote Desktop for either my WP or Android device, I would connect using domain.net:3389.

This setup worked and I had connections to two machines on my network, with my only having to repeat the steps for every new machine (and also changing the port number). But for some reason, I cannot get squat to work with the C7000.

I did find a tutorial, but it talked about needing to make a Static IP for my device (assuming the remote PC I wanted to connect to, which if true, would just add even more work since I have several machines I need to remote into).

Hope this helps...

[TheEther]

You can use DHCP address reservations (under LAN setup) instead of static IP addresses.  The idea is to keep the IP addresses that are assigned to your server stable.  Otherwise, the port forwarding rules will stop working if the addresses change.

Other than that, the tutorial looks reasonable.  Set external starting and ending port to 3389.  You can select Use the same port range for Internal port or else manually enter 3389 for internal starting and ending port.  Set External IP to Any.  Make sure to click Apply to save the rule.  Try rebooting the router.  Sometimes, the rule won't take effect until a reboot.

Does the C7000 have a public IP address?  Note, if the Internet port's IP address starts with 100.x.x.x, then it's not a public IP address.  Your ISP is doing NAT and port forwarding will not work.

You should not have to change the Windows Registry.  3389 should be the default port used by RDP.

[HailSkate2k5]

Thanks, Ether...

Dunno why, but Netgear seems to be making this more difficult than it should, so I might need some walkthrough on this. I've been playing with different things all dang day and nothing seems to be working. One of the issues I am going to have is that I have like 5 PCs I need to remote into and this doggone router is making things difficult.

The problem is that the device is requiring me to open ports and then assign them to a specfic IP of a local machine...and I cannot do that twice. Example PC1 and PC2 cannot share port 80 or 3389 or anything, unless I am missing something.

I did assign address reservation under LAN Setup, otherwise that's all I have.

Yes, I have the Public IP of the modem, so no problems there.

[TheEther]

You cannot simultaneously share external ports, so what you have to do is have each PC mapped to unique external ports.  You could set up the following rules:

PC1: external port 4000 to internal port 3389 at PC1's internal IP address

PC2: external port 4001 to internal port 3389 at PC2's internal IP address

...

PC5: external port 4004 to internal port 3389 at PC5's internal IP address

Then to connect to each PC, point the RDP client at the appropriate external port and public IP address.

[HailSkate2k5]

OK, now we're getting somewhere.

The reason for the registry hack was to assign an unique address for each PC (3389, 3390, 3391, etc.). The way the 6850 was setup was that the Local Start/End Port and External Start/End Port were set to that number, and the Local IP was set to the PC IP (like 192.168.0.19). When I use Remote Desktop on my phone, I use mydomain.com:xxxx, where xxxx is 4-digit number I assigned each PC, so www.mydomain.com:3390 would connect me to the machine I setup to use that.

So, do I still need that registry hack? Do I need to do anything on the remote machines?

Update: OK, so I've setup address reservation on the C7000 so that the three main machines are given 'static' addresses. I went to the Port Forwarding setup page and have the following:

Service Name: Name of machine I am connecting to.

Service Type: TCP/UDP (I did try to use only TCP earlier but no joy)

External Starting/Ending Port: 4000

Use the Same Port Range for Internal Port: Unchecked

Internal Starting/Ending Port: 3389

Internal IP Address: Local IP address to the specific machine. Matches what I entered in the Address Reservation for the machine.

External IP Address: Any

I edited the settings in Remote desktop to www.mydomain.com:4000. I tried messing with that Registry setting to match (change 3389 to 4000), but again, nothing.

So at this time, I am either failing to open a needed port or there is a setting elsewhere on the C7000 that needs to be checked/unchecked. At this point, I have no other ports forwarded.

[TheEther]

I don't see anything wrong with your setup.  Try looking at netstat -an on your computer.  Confirm that RDP is listening on port 3389.  You should also see a second entry for a TCP connection whenever you try to connect to your computer.  If you don't see the second entry, then the connection is not being established.  Are you sure that www.mydomain.com maps to your public IP address?  Try using your actual public IP address in your RDP client.

[HailSkate2k5]

Man, I can't figure this crap out...

So on my server, I ran netstat -an and saw that 80, 443, 3389 were all being listened to.

On my local PC, only 3390 (the port I added via Registry edit), was there; 80, 443, and 3389 were AWOL.

However, according to www.CanYouSeeMe.org, ports 80 and 443 are NOT visible on either machine, whereas 3389/3390 ARE.

I definitely have an issue with my domain not forwarding to my modem/router; using the IP address and port works while using the domain name and port doesn't.

I've been messing with settings for the last couple of hours, include messing with the Registry and rebooting each PC and the C7000, this is what is working thus far:

Service Name: Name of PC (PC1, PC2)

External Starting/Ending Ports: 3389 (PC1), 3390 (PC2)

Use the Same Port Range for Internal Port: Selected

Internal Starting/Ending Ports: 3389 (PC1), 3390 (PC2)

Internal IP Address: IP address of each PC; Each has an address reservation

External IP Address: Any

I swear I was trying these settings out from the very beginning, but now I am thinking that the issue I had was from the redirect not working. I am getting my IP address from Advanced Home ---> Internet Port ---> IP Address/Mask.

So, not sure if all is well or what, but I am going to bed (it's after 5am), and will try this out on some of the other machines.

[TheEther]

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@HailSkate2k5 wrote:

Man, I can't figure this crap out...

So on my server, I ran netstat -an and saw that 80, 443, 3389 were all being listened to.

On my local PC, only 3390 (the port I added via Registry edit), was there; 80, 443, and 3389 were AWOL.

Why would you expect your local PC to listen to 3389 when you explicitly overrode RDP to listen to 3390?

Are you running something that listens to ports 80 and 443?

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However, according to www.CanYouSeeMe.org, ports 80 and 443 are NOT visible on either machine, whereas 3389/3390 ARE.

How are you forwarding ports 80 and 443 to multiple machines?

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I definitely have an issue with my domain not forwarding to my modem/router; using the IP address and port works while using the domain name and port doesn't.

I had a hunch your domain was not working.  If you nslookup your domain, do you get your public IP address back?

I've been messing with settings for the last couple of hours, include messing with the Registry and rebooting each PC and the C7000, this is what is working thus far:

Service Name: Name of PC (PC1, PC2)

External Starting/Ending Ports: 3389 (PC1), 3390 (PC2)

Use the Same Port Range for Internal Port: Selected

Internal Starting/Ending Ports: 3389 (PC1), 3390 (PC2)

Internal IP Address: IP address of each PC; Each has an address reservation

External IP Address: Any

Did you try my suggestion of keeping the internal port at 3389 for all PCs and just varying the external port?  As I said, my method avoids the need to muck with the registry.

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I swear I was trying these settings out from the very beginning, but now I am thinking that the issue I had was from the redirect not working. I am getting my IP address from Advanced Home ---> Internet Port ---> IP Address/Mask.

Yeah, that's the right address.  Besides, you already proved that using this IP address and port works while the domain name and port does not. 

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So, not sure if all is well or what, but I am going to bed (it's after 5am), and will try this out on some of the other machines. 

It looks like you are pretty close.  Port forwarding is working.  You just need to fix your domain.  Good luck.

[HailSkate2k5]

Good lord...so much. 🙂

OK, so nslookup came back with the DNS server, as displayed by the modem on the start page.

The whole thing with using ports 3389, 3390, etc., was setup by a friend of mine who does setups like this. I don't know the "why", I just know that it worked, so I went with it. I didn't know that RDP listened at 3389. If I messed something up, how would I get RDP to go back to listening at 3389 and use different port numbers for each PC?

I did try the 4000/3389 suggestion you made, but because I didn't catch the part about the domain not properly forwarding, I don't remember if it worked. I 'think' it worked on one machine but not another...this whole thing is frustrating as heck- probably why I chose to raise my kids rather than work in the tech field, LOL.

[TheEther]

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@HailSkate2k5 wrote:

Good lord...so much. 🙂

OK, so nslookup came back with the DNS server, as displayed by the modem on the start page.

Hmm.  An nslookup of your domain is supposed to return your public IP address, not your DNS server.  You need to fix that.

The whole thing with using ports 3389, 3390, etc., was setup by a friend of mine who does setups like this. I don't know the "why", I just know that it worked, so I went with it. I didn't know that RDP listened at 3389. If I messed something up, how would I get RDP to go back to listening at 3389 and use different port numbers for each PC?

The registry entry that you have been modifying specifies the port number that RDP listens to.  You can either modify it as your friend did or do it my way.  It doesn't matter.  You may as well stick with your friend's method if you are more comfortable with it.