Win 2003 Server Remote Desktop Problems

I have set up a Win 2003 server on my small business network - I am using a Belkin N+ wireless router (F5D8635-4v1). I have changed the settings to unblock and allow port forwarding for port 3389 on TCP and UDP.

I have also opened port 3389 for UDP and TCP on the Win 2003 firewall.

Finally I have tested tha tthe port is open on the router by using the online test tool at http://www.yougetsignal.com/tools/open-ports/

For some reason, if I am in my local network, and I specify the local IP address to RDP to, it works fine. If however I specify the IP address of the router, it fails.

I have tried to disable both the windows firewall and the router firewall, but still no luck... This is not specific to RDP, but it doesn't seem that any port forwarding is working.

Any advice would be appreciated

 

I might not have made it very clear when I said "I have changed the settings to unblock and allow port forwarding for port 3389 on TCP and UDP ", but I have already set up port forwarding - I have specified the internal IP address as required, but it does not work.

 

Using Royal TS, I get the following: "Remote desktop client was disconnected: 516 - This computer can't connect to the remote computer. Try connecting again. If the problem continues, contact the owner of the remote computer or your network administrator. "

MS Terminal Server Console doesn't give any more useful errors - exactly the same as Royal TS.

This is very strange - it has to be the router configuration if I can RDP inside the network, but not from outside the network. I have gone over the port forwarding or "virtual servers" (Belkin's terminology) over and over again. Like I said, I have even tried to disable the router firewall and Windows firewall so nothing should be blocked. Even with all security down, no luck.

I have restarted the router and the computer to no avail.

I'm most certainly not a network expert, but I have set up port forwarding a few times before, but with a Netgear router which worked perfectly. I understand the basics of what is going on but for the life of me I can;t figure out why this isn't working... Are there any sort of tools to test what the problem is?

 

You are a legend - thank you! I actually have an offsite VPS subscription, so I used TS to connect to that, and then used TS from the VPS to connect to my local server and it worked! So the problem is in fact that I am already inside the network and the router does not seem to like that.

So now the question is - How do I fix that? I use my laptop to connect to the server from within and from outside the network. I am running a few server applications that I use clients to connect to so obviously it will be a huge pain if I have to change the IP address depending on whether or not I am inside the network...

 

Not really. Create a local shortcut and a remote shortcut.

I have to do it all the time with several apps.

 

I just find it strange that with my previous router (Netgear), it did not give this problem. I could connect to my server using the router IP address whether I was inside the network or not. Is it not a setting on the router or something that needs to be changed in order to avoid this problem? Or maybe I should just stick with Netgear routers in the future...

 

It might not be a big deal when just using terminal server, but when it comes to testing applications, then it is a problem - The applications are configured to connect to a specific IP address, so each time I come into my own network, I have to reconfigure all the applications.

 

Try it with all the firewall features turned off on the router. Something is blocking certain outgoing packets.