Hello, on my network I can Remote Desktop Connection (RDC)to my Vista pc. I want to RDC from anywhere in the world so I forwarded port 3389 on my Vista PC using my netgeat router DG834GT. Strange thing is when I try to connect to the ip address in RDC from a computer outside the network it doesn't work, yet if I type the ip address with the port xx.xx.xx.xx:3389 it connects? How can I get rdc to work without typing the port after the ip address? Thanks Tom.

Hi Tom, I tried to RDP to a Windows Vista machine without typing the port through NAT, and it works fine in my testing environment. The environment is listed below: RDP Client: Windows Vista machine/Windows XP machine NAT/Router: Windows Server 2003 RDP Server (the machine enable Remote Desktop): Windows Vista As a result, I suspect that this issue may be caused by the following factors: 1. The RDP Client machine did not attempt to establish a RDP session (that is, the destination port is not 3389) when you tried to connect the RDP server without typing the port number. 2. The Router blocked (or failed to forward) the packet to the Internal RDP Server for some reasons when you tried to connect it without typing the port number. Please help to confirm the following information for further research: 1. What system is the RDP Client machine being used? Windows XP? Windows Vista? 2. What error message did you get when the RDP Client machine failed to access the RDP Server? 3. Is there any information logged in the netgeat router such as NAT Session Mapping Table so that we can verify if the packet sent from RDP Client has reached to the router? 4. Please help to capture netmon on both RDP Client and RDP Server by using the following the steps below:4.1 Install and start netmon on both machine:=====4.1.1 Download Netmon3.1 from:http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=18b1d59d-f4d8-4213-8d17-2f6dde7d7aac&DisplayLang=en#filelist 4.1.2 Install Netmon3.1 on both machines. By default install to <%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Network Monitor 3>4.1.3 Run the following commands in Command Prompt (Run as Administrator) to start Netmon3.1:cd /d %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Network Monitor 3nmcap.exe /Network * /Capture /File %SystemDrive%\%ComputerName%_Repro.cap:100M /DisableConversations4.2 Reproduce the issue (Access the RDP Server without typing the port number)4.3 After the issue reproduced, press Ctrl+C to stop Netmon capture4.4 Zip and upload the file <%SystemDrive%\%ComputerName%_Repro.cap> to the following space from both machines:https://sftasia.one.microsoft.com/choosetransfer.aspx?key=622c658d-1582-4e3d-a0f7-b0f6800eae8cPassword: OPFE-8n*Q6g 5. Please let me know the IP address of RDP Client, RDP Server and Router (both internal and external IP address) Additionally, there are something you may try before collecting netmon: 1. Try to connect the RDP Server from other machine (a Windows Vista machine is better). 2. Try to use another network device as the router/NAT 3. Temporarily disable Firewall. Thank you for your time and cooperation. Sincerely, Joson Zhou Microsoft Online Community Support

Hi Tom, As this thread has been quiet for a while, we will mark it as Answered at this time. If the issue still persists and you want to return to this question, please reply this post directly so we will be notified to follow it up. You can also choose to unmark the answer as you wish. In addition, wed love to hear your feedback about the solution. By sharing your experience you can help other community members facing similar problems. Thanks. Sincerely, Joson Zhou Microsoft Online Community Support