Anyone who uses Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) in Windows XP or 2003 are strongly encouraged to upgrade to RDC 6 that was just released. The newest version has support for Windows Vista which is very important when connecting to a Vista machine or if you are on a Vista machine and are connecting to a computer that is running XP.
I have connected to an XP machine using RDC in Vista but it displays a warning saying that it couldn’t properly authenticate the PC. You can choose to ignore the warning but in work/school environments they may lock it down so that users have to pass the authentication in order for a connection to be established. For that reason it might be difficult to connect to your XP machine at home, but if you upgrade to Remote Desktop 6 that shouldn’t be a problem.
Note: If installing this on Windows XP you will need to have SP2 installed.
Here are the various download links for RDC 6:
Remote Desktop Connection 6.0 for Windows XP
Remote Desktop Connection 6.0 for Windows XP x64
Remote Desktop Connection 6.0 for Windows Server 2003
Remote Desktop Connection 6.0 for Windows Server 2003 x64
News Source: Bink.nu
Hey Ryan, can you give a quick tutorial on how to connect to a remote computer using that new interface? I connect to my parents computer back in Iowa City via Windows Live Messenger and just have them request remote assistance from me via messenger.
Is that the same interface when v6.0 is installed?
Just curious about the steps for manual connection via the RDS v6.0 interface as opposed to the Messenger interface.
All you really need to know is the IP address of the computer that you are connecting to. Just type that in and it will prompt you to enter in the username/password for the PC. If you are behind a router you’ll have to do some port forwarding for TCP port 3389.
Here is a guide that should help you out if you have more questions:
[microsoft.com]
But I could always whip something up if that doesn’t work for you.
So I can ignore the stuff in the article about the IIS Web Connection but I need to configure the TCP port on the host computer firewall and then know the IP, Username and Password of an account right?
Yes, you can ignore the IIS Web Connection stuff. The rest of the things you listed is everything that you need. It is actually pretty easy…I think you’ll be surprised (until it doesn’t work like most things on a computer)
No announcement from Microsoft regarding this?
anyway thanks Ryan for the update
Cool. Last thing I think, do I have to set up the TCP port forwarding through the routers internal address like for D-Link 192.168.0.1 ??
I’m assuming I go in there somewhere and set it up. I would check but I don’t have the time right now, but I always have time for CyberNet!
Not too familiar with hardware firewall configurations…
Once you get into your router configuration screen there should be a spot for port forwarding. You mentioned a D-Link so using their router emulator online I was able to figure it out for the DI-624. [aycu25.webshots.com] After you get the port forwarding up you’ll just enter in the IP address of the router into the Remote Desktop on the remote computer.
Hope the screenshot helps.
Hey rock on, thanks for the info – it will be put to good use. Thanks again!