Windows 7 Port forwarding remote desktop issue

Question

I have been banging my head against the wall for a long time now trying to get remote desktop working on my Win 7 machine.

Here are the things I have tried:

• I have verified using http://www.canyouseeme.org/ and other services that the port is accessible.
• I can use remote desktop inside my local network.
• Port forwarding seems to be configured correctly.
• I have disabled the firewall on both my local computer as well as my DSL Router.

One thing that does concern me is that when I look at the listening ports section on the network tab of the Resource Monitor, the firewall status is Not Allowed, not restricted. I'm not sure what Not Allowed means but it seems suspicious.

I am at a loss for other ideas to check. It seems that I must be missing something obvious but I can't think what it would be.

Answer 1

I would first ensure:

• The Windows 7 machine's power options are not turning the computer off after a few minutes
• The port is forwarded for TCP traffic, not just UDP
• It's a long shot, but check with your ISP to see if they block this port at their level as a security measure. Typically outgoing SMTP and (sometimes) incoming Web is blocked, RDP wouldn't surprise me nowadays.

Also try explicitly adding mstsc.exe into the allowed list of applications.

Answer 2

It turns out that my router wasn't forwarding the port properly when I was trying to access my outside IP address from the inside. The router seems to be taking all the traffic itself when it sees that the traffic is coming from inside instead of forwarding it to the proper machine.

This isn't ideal but I guess it is what I have to work with...