Do you have a machine (or machines) that you would like to have easy remote access to? With a static IP and remote access software like VNC, it’s pretty simple. You install and password-protect the software, add a port-forward on your router and you’re all set.

What if you want more features like file transfer or the ability to manage multiple machines? What if you don’t have a static IP? Sounds like an expensive proposition? It doesn’t have to be. With a little work and some free software, you can be off and running.

What you’ll need:

  1. A free Dynamic DNS account from dyndns.org
  2. A free copy of DNSer
  3. A free demo of R-Admin
  4. A router that can port-forward

Once you’ve signed up for your Dynamic DNS account, you’ll have a username, password and a URL of your own that we’ll direct to your dynamic IP later. Make a note of all three of these things.

Download DNSer and install it. Upon installation, it’ll create a folder with an executable, a DNSerSvc.ini file and windows service called “Dynamic DNS Updater”. Make sure the service is not running and edit the ini file to be similar to the following:

[Srv1]
URL=http://members.dyndns.org/nic/update?hostname=YOUR_DOMAIN.dyndns.org&myip=%s
User=YOUR_USERNAME
Pass=YOUR_PASSWORD
Proxy=
ProxyPort=
MinInterval=600

MaxInterval=2160000
StatusOK=good
StatusOK1=nochg
StatusOK2=abuse
LastAttmpt=1980.01.01 08:00:00
LastUpdate=1980.01.01 08:00:00

[Status]
LastIP=0.0.0.0

Changed=1980.01.01 08:00:00

[Source]
Interval=600
URL=http://checkip.dyndns.org
User=YOUR_USERNAME
Pass=YOUR_PASSWORD
Proxy=

ProxyPort=
Prefix=IP Address:
Count=1
Log=1

Download and install the R-Admin demo. It will create a Service called “Remote Administrator Service”. You’ll want to configure the service and set up security. Your options are single-password security and NT-Security. Refer to R-Admin’s help for more information about initial setup. It’s pretty straight forward.

Your machine will need a static INTERNAL IP address. You can set this up a couple of different ways. You can set it up in Windows to use a static IP, but if the router isn’t aware of your intent, you run the risk of having the router give that IP address to another machine on the network. For this reason, I’d suggest also setting the router to give the same IP address to your computer’s MAC address every time. To accomplish this, consult your router’s documentation, but typically, the interface is pretty straight forward.

Finally, access your router’s admin area and set up a port forward for your machine. Unless you chose to use an alternate port, R-Admin’s default port is (TCP) 4899. Forward it to your (static) internal IP.*Note that Windows XP SP2 users will need to add an exception for the R-Admin port in their firewall settings.

Once you verify that your DNSer and R-Admin services are bot set to automatically start, reboot your system and you should be all set. You should, by default, see the R-Admin logo in your system tray, indicating that the server is waiting for connection. The DNSer service is a little less informative and you’ll want to look in it’s installation folder at the DNSerSvc.log file and see if it indicates any problems.

If all appears well, you should be able to visit IP Chicken and it should match the results of a ping to YOUR_DOMAIN.dyndns.org. If these things are true, install the R-admin demo on another machine, fire up the R-Admin viewer and try to connect!

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