There are several services available now that allow you to\nremotely access your computer from any other machine in the\nworld, as long as it is connected to the internet. The good\nnews is that Windows XP Professional has this functionality\nbuilt into the operating system. In this article, I am going\nto show you how to configure your Windows XP Professional\ncomputer to support remote access using the Remote Desktop\nfeature.\nTo use Remote Desktop you will need the following:\nA host computer (the one you want to access remotely) that\nis running Microsoft Windows XP Professional and is\nconnected to the Internet.\nA client computer (the one you will use when remotely\naccessing your PC) running Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft\nWindows Millennium Edition (Me), Microsoft Windows 98,\nMicrosoft Windows 98 Second Edition, Microsoft Windows 2000,\nMicrosoft Windows NT 4.0, or Microsoft Windows 95, with\naccess to the Internet.\nAppropriate user accounts and permissions configured on the\nremote Windows XP Professional to allow remote access.\nThe IP address of your home computer. You can figure this\nout by going to a site like www.whatismyip.com. The only\nproblem with this is that your ISP may dynamically change\nthis address from time to time. I would recommend using a\nfree dynamic DNS provider, such as www.no-ip.com. This will\nallow you to assign a public DNS record to your computer,\nsuch as yourcomputer.no-ip.com. You will need to have tcp\nport 3389 open on your firewall. If your machine is behind a\nfirewall or NAT router you will need to forward traffic on\ntcp port 3389 to your host computer.\nHow to Configure the Remote Desktop service\nOn the host computer, go to the control panel and double\nclick the system icon. Click the Remote tab, and then click\nto select the Allow users to connect remotely to this\ncomputer check box. Administrators are granted access by\ndefault, but there is an option to add other user accounts\nif needed. Click on OK to save your changes.\nConnecting to your computer\nOn the client PC, you will need a software client called\nRemote Desktop Connection. Computers running Windows XP Home\nand Professional already have this client installed. If you\nare connecting from a client PC that is running another\nversion of windows, you will need to install the Remote\nDesktop Connection software. You can download the software\nfor free from Microsoft's website. The Next phase is to run\nthe Remote Desktop Connection software so you can connect to\nyour computer. To do this, Click Start, point to All\nPrograms, point to Accessories, point to Communications, and\nthen click Remote Desktop Connection. From here you just\nneed to enter the IP address or DNS host name and click on\nconnect.\nObviously, there are security implications that need to be\nconsidered when opening ports on you firewall or NAT router\nand exposing your machine to the internet. Please consider\nall of the security risks and decide whether or not this\nmethod will work for you.\n