If like me you've more than one computer at home and would like to be able to RDP to them directly then read on! If you follow the steps below you will be able to add extra "listening" ports to each of your computers so you can access them from anywhere... The reason you need to do this is to allow you to specify specific port forwarding rules in your firewall/router. The default RDP port is 3389 so I leave my main computer alone, but if i want to access my media centre I can get to it by adding :3390 to my hostname/ip. Any other computers you can just increase the port number.
Step one:
Run regedit from a command line on the computer
Step two:
Browse to the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\
Control\Terminal Server\WinStations\RDP-Tcp
Step three:
Export the key to your desktop - it will create a .reg file.
Step four:
Open the newly exported registry file in Notepad.
Step five:
The second line of the file should contain the path of the exported registry key - its important to change this, otherwise when you re-import it the existing RDP settings will be overriden. I prefer to create additional rules so you can always still access the computer normally inside your network. So the second line should end with:
I suggest changing it to:
WinStations\RDP-Tcp-3390]
This will then create a brand new key when we re-import it later
Step six:
Still in notepad search for "PortNumber", it will look like this:
"PortNumber"=dword:00000d3d
You need to change its value - but its in hex so you'll need to use an online tool - or calculator in scientific mode. The following sets the port number to 3390:
"PortNumber"=dword:00000d3e
Step seven:
Save the file (make sure it's saving as a .reg)
Step eight:
Double click the saved file which will re-import it. (accept the confirmation messages)
Step nine:
Run regedit again and browse to your new key - just to check its there ok.
Step ten:
Re-boot the machine and try RDPing with :3390 on the end of its IP address.
Step eleven:
Login to your router/firewall add an incoming rule for port TCP 3390 to the IP of the relevant computer.
Repeat the above steps for each of your home computers (making sure to change the new port number each time!)