Connecting remotely using Remote Desktop

The process of connecting to a remote computer using Remote Desktop is pretty straight forward, however, there are some minor configuration settings that may prevent you from doing so. In this article we will go through the whole process so that all necessary steps are covered and a successful remote connection is guaranteed.

Setting up the host computer:

  1. Make sure that both computers are on the same subnet (LAN). Open an elevated command prompt to check connectivity between computers using the ping command. If the ping is unsuccessful then type in the following firewall rules:
    netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name=”ICMPv4” protocol=icmp:any,any dir =in action=allow
    And to allow IPv6 ping traffic type:
    netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name=”ICMPv6” protocol=icmp:any,any dir =in action=allow
  2. From the Control Panel page create a new user account as a Standard user and set a password
  3. Click Start, right-click Computer and select Properties
  4. From the Control Panel page click the Remote settings item
  5. From the System Properties page under the Remote tab, check the secure option Allow connections only from computers running Remote Desktop with Network Level Authentication (more secure) 
  6. Click the Select Users… button and add the user account created in step 2 through the Add… button
  7. Close all open windows and log off – do not turn off the computer

Setting up the client computer:

  1. From the Start search text box type Remote Desktop and click the Remote desktop Connection item in the result list. 
  2. On the Remote Desktop Connection page, click Options and enter the hostname of the host computer in the Computer: text field, and the user name created in the previous procedure in the User name: text field, and finally click Connect
  3. In the Windows Security, Enter Your Credentials dialog box, enter the password for the new user created previously and click Ok
  4. When presented with the warning that the identity of the remote computer cannot be verified, click Yes

You can check that you are indeed connected to the specified remote computer by opening a command prompt and verify that the prompt path is the same as the username and/or type hostname to verify the computer name.

Further details about Remote Desktop functionality can be found in this article.

Share