Real VNC

[bigblockmatt]

I am trying to set up real vnc at home so that i can access my comp. it only seems allowm acces for my lan not over the internet. i forewarded the ports in the router ( i think correctly). when i put my mouse over the icon in the system tray, it only lists my local ip, not my global... anyone got any idea why? thanks.

[Illuminati]

I have not done this before, but here's what I think (for whatever its worth)...

Your computer will only know about the address the router gives it... most likely a 192.168.x.x IP address.

To get the IP address you will need when accessing from the internet, you need to use the IP address of the router. To find this, you will need to log into your router and find the IP address the internet (your ISP) has given it.

When port forwarding is setup correctly, you tell the router to direct the traffic coming into the router on a certain port to the specific computer's IP that the router has assigned.

More likely than not, you will have to set VNC to use a port number other than the default, then use the same port number when setting up port forwarding on the router.

So lets say the router's IP from the internet is 24.10.1.10.
And your PC's IP is 192.168.1.101.
Let's say you setup VNC to use port number 444.
You will need to setup port forwarding on the router to direct incoming traffic from port 444 to forward to 192.168.1.101:444.
Then you should be able to access your PC through a VNC client by using 24.10.1.10:444.

[Topher]

I've set this up before. Illuminati is correct.
Your router actually has two IP addresses, a LAN IP address (which the computers on your LAN talks to) and a WAN IP address (which is exposed to the internet). Once port forwarding is set up correctly, from on the internet you'll need to point to your routers WAN address, then all packets will be forwarded through the port that 's configured to your computer running VNC.

I do have a suggestion for you though. You should get Dynamic DNS set up. I'll explain....

Most ISP's set their clients up with a dynamic IP address. Although most of them don't change that often, when they do, you'll loose the ability to VNC with your setup until you figure out your new IP address that was assigned to your router. Now, I'm talking about your routers WAN IP address changing.

Go to http://www.dyndns.org then go to their Services tab and check out "Dynamic DNS". You'll have to create an account with them (It's free). Then dowload one of the DynDNS clients. There are many available. I use DynDNS Updater: http://www.kanasolution.com/
With your account at DynDNS you will select a domain name to use. For instance homeip.net (they have quite a few available). Then you'll select a subdomain name. For instance bigblockmatt.homeip.net

Then once you are registered, you install the dynDNS client. The client runs as a service and puts an icon your system tray. What the client does for you is it monitors the WAN IP address on your router then notifies DynDNS what your current WAN IP address is. DynDNS keeps this IP registered to the DNS name you registered with them. Therefore, when our on the internet and you want to VNC to your box, instead of having to know your routers current WAN IP address, all you'll have to type is the domain name you registered with DynDNS. For example: http://bigblockmatt.homeip.net

It's really not that difficult to set up and VERY convienient when accessing your computers from out on the net.

Good luck!

[Topher]

Ack! I almost forgot. For port forwarding with a router, it's definetly best practice to make sure the computer running VNC is using a STATIC IP address and not a dynamic one from DHCP which might be running on your router.

[bigblockmatt]

hey guys, sorry bout the delay in the response. Thanks so much for all the help!! i got it to work finally. I was using a crappy gateway wireless router (that i was hardwired into) the portforwarding on it sucks. so i switched to a different router (i think it is a netgear rp614). I did a couple different port forwarding things and finally got it to work. I think my problem before was that i have the wrong local IP. I switched it and now it works .

can i do that dns thing through my router?

[Topher]

can i do that dns thing through my router?

Yes

[kenc51]

bigblockmatt you should have an option for dyndns in your router config page.....
then goto here
http://www.dyndns.com/