Port Forwarding | How to Access Your Computer From Anywhere!

hey bunch of nerds after a short hiatus I'm back with another video obviously I like to mix up the videos on my channel but networking will always be one of my favourite things to focus on I've learned a lot making these videos and I've learned a lot from the comments as well so keep them coming today we'll be focusing on port forwarding and accessing your computer from anywhere [Music] there are plenty of reasons to access your computer from outside your own personal home or business network having access to your programs network resources and files as if you were actually sitting at your computer are just a few of them I remote into my computer in the garage from the comfort of my office or my couch all the time it's also a great way to show off how nerdy you are to your friends before we get too far into it though there are a few things to make note of if you want to use Windows built-in software remote desktop connection the PC you are remoting into will need a copy of Windows pro or better however the Windows computer you were remoting from can be any version of Windows if you don't have Windows Pro or better or an OS that supports this there are other ways there are several programs or services you can use that will let you remote into your computer from the internet some cost money like remote PC go to my PC or LogMeIn and some are free like WebEx free join me ultra VNC tight VNC or TeamViewer TeamViewer is a good option so we'll briefly touch on it here jump to this time if you want to skip to the port forwarding or check out the timestamps in the description to jump around download and install TeamViewer link is in the description if that's helpful one great feature about TeamViewer is it installs and runs as both a client and a server which means if you install it on two computers you can use either computer to remote into either computer TeamViewer is a great way to connect and share screens with someone that needs help with their permission you can take over and help them with issues what we want to do though is configure a computer for unattended remote access to do this on the computer you want to remote into select installation to access the computer remotely when installing TeamViewer and click personal non-commercial use and then click accept finish click Next on this window type in a password you want to use then click Next here you can sign in or set up an account if you want to or skip the account you don't have to have one the last one do tells you the number you would type in to TeamViewer on another computer to remote in to this one you just set up it's that easy TeamViewer is not sponsoring this in any way I just like how easy it is and it just works yes thanks Todd the next option is the nerdiest and the coolest if you ask me and the focal point of this video all Windows PCs come with a piece of software called remote desktop connection yes it does just what it says you can use it to remotely connect to other Windows PCs but you can only use it to connect to computers running a pro version of Windows or better as I stated if the PC you want to remote into is running Windows home you'll need to download one of the other options we already talked about or upgrade your version of Windows Microsoft also has an app for Android and iPhone that lets you remote in to Windows PCs from your phone or tablet as well so let's go over how we set this up first you need to enable remote desktop on the PC you want to remote into to do this search for remote desktop settings and then click here to enable remote desktop if the account you want to use is an administrator on the computer you should be done with setup if not click on select users that can remotely access this PC and click Add type the name of the account you want to have access and then click OK next I'm pretty sure you need to set up a Windows password to log in you can do that by searching for it in options and then selecting password and then add and then set up your password within your private network you should be set so let's try it search for a remote desktop connection type in the name of your computer or the private IP address your computer has and click connect you can find the private IP address of the computer you want to connect to by opening up a command prompt window on the computer you want to connect to and typing in IP config look for the ipv4 address of the network adapter on your computer there's your address type in the username and password of the account on that computer that has access to login if it won't connect make sure your username and password are correct or the name of the computer is correct if you can't reach the computer by name try the IP address and make sure the computer is on and both systems are connected to the network you can also double check the settings we mentioned earlier in the video or make sure that port 3389 is open in the firewall your computer is using if all is set up correctly you should see it log you in and voila there is your desktop but we are inside your private network or at home now let's go over how to access your computer from the public network or outside of your home network before we move on if you haven't seen my home networking 101 video yet I recommend you bookmark this video and check it out first port forwarding will make a little more sense if you do in that video I described the fact that all devices on a network will get an IP address that IP address helps identify a computer on the network when computers on your private network communicate your router handles most of the traffic and remembers where the traffic came from should there be a response if you're using a laptop at a library or at a family members house for example and you wanted to remote into your computer at home you would type in your public IP address into the remote desktop window if you don't know what your public IP address is you can find it out by googling my IP address on one of your computers at home before you leave after entering in your public IP address into the remote desktop window hitting enter your router gets this request but it won't know where to send it so it drops the request and hence you won't be able to connect to solve this issue we need to set up port forwarding port forwarding will tell the router where to send a certain traffic that comes from outside the network does it make sense think of it this way I've used the analogy of snail mail before think of each person in your house as a device or PC each one has a name everyone can talk with each other inside the house just fine because they know each other's names the house they are all in is like your private network if a letter comes to your house or router Dan there's no name on the letter or no specified destination the router has no idea who to give it to and the letter will get lost port forwarding is like telling the router all bills go to dad or all coupons go to mom we will tell the router that any traffic that comes through on port 3 3 8 9 which is remote desktops port goes to one specific computer for example the one we configured earlier to set this up open a web browser and type in the IP address of the router it's usually 192.168.1.1 or 0.1 but the routers manual will tell you what it is if you can't seem to find out what it is you can open up a command prompt window and type in ipconfig and you can find it under default gateway at the main router page type in the username and password if you haven't changed it the manual will tell you what the default user name and password is and if you haven't changed them this would be a good time to do that to some routers even have apps for your cell phone that may allow this once logged in look for the port forwarding section your manual once again will tell you where to find it but it's usually not hard I have a Linksys router and it's under security apps and gaming and single port forwarding click whatever you need to do create a new entry and enter in a name like RDP or remote desktop type in three three eight nine as the port leave the protocol as both or TCP either work and then type in the private IP address of the computer you want to remote into it's a good idea to setup the computer you want to remote into with a static IP address so you don't have to keep logging into your router to change it anytime it gets a new one once you got this set up save it man you should be good to go now when you're outside of your network you can type in your public IP address your router now has been told what PC to send this traffic to it Ford's the incoming traffic to that PC and now you can log in keep in mind your public IP address can change as well unless you pay for a static IP address if you think you might need to access computer remotely make sure you find out what your current public IP address is before you leave your home or you can sign up for services that help with a changing public IP address like D Y and you DNS but that is beyond the scope of this video so I hope this was helpful it's easy to Google how to set up a static IP address or how to download a manual for your router but if anyone has questions I'm happy to answer as many as I can thanks for watching

Channel: Budget Nerd

Views: 138,887

Rating: 4.8163376 out of 5

Keywords: port forwarding, port forward, remote desktop connection, rdp, remote computer access, access computer from internet, remote into pc, 3389, teamviewer, remote desktop

Id: mLLKtO-qlNM

Length: 10min 29sec (629 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 09 2019