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BLAKE
Asked: 2010-12-09 13:37:42 +0800 CST

Manage external remote desktop connections

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I don't know if this is posible, but right now we have about 30 employees. Most of them work at our office, but a few work fom home. We have 16 IPs at the office.

For the people that work at home, I added a dns entry [email protected] points to an IP with port 3389 NATed to their desktop at work. They can remote into work fine.

More and more people keep asking for a way to remote into their desktops, but I am out of external IP addresses. I am wondering if there is any easy way to let them all remote in via a single IP, without changing Ports.

I know I can give everyone a differant port number and ask them to remember it, but I dont think that is realistic.

I tried to setup TSWeb on windows 2003, but that still only works if there is an External dns record pointing to an external IP.

Does anyone have any suggestions to making this work?

Also, I have tried using a VPN, but most of the employees are way underwater around computers and cannot understand making a VPN work before remoting in.

windows remote-desktop

2 Answers

  1. I think you know what the answer is yourself which is VPNs. We used to have a windows server that allowed users to VPN (Windows vpn client) to it and then access their machines and or local resources remotely. Yes users had to learn to go on the VPN first but they'll get use to it.

    Now your current situation is that you have around 16 user machines with a internet facing IP address with port 3389 listening on it. You have said that the employees are way under water about computers, so how many of these employees have strong username\passwords. Because you have 16 odd open holes in your network.

    In fairness if some sort of VPN even a Windows VPN is going to get push back from employees then your question is no longer a technical one but a management. By that I mean how much would management like to risk the security of their companies data just to save employees having to log onto a VPN.

    My 2 cents worth but probably not really what you wanted.

    J

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  2. Best Answer

    Terminal Services Gateway will allow it, as will RWW in an SBS server: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc731264%28WS.10%29.aspx

    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd560672%28WS.10%29.aspx

    This can also be managed reasonably well via a free LogMeIn accounts w/ shared subaccounts.

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