PCAnywhere

[phm14]

Heys Guys,
I'm in the middle of setting up PCAnywhere between 2 offices in different locations. Both PCs are XPpro servers behind routers. Host is SP2, remote is SP1. From what I've read I only need to set up static IP and port forwarding on the host, correct? Anyone know if I have to dump firewalls?

[glc]

Static IP and port forwarding is all you need, firewalls may have to be configured to allow PCAnywhere depending on what firewall you are using. However, these days we recommend a service such as logmein.com instead of PCAnywhere for remote access, this does not require static IP or port forwarding and firewalls will let it through being that it's all done on port 80.

[phm14]

Originally Posted by glc Static IP and port forwarding is all you need, firewalls may have to be configured to allow PCAnywhere depending on what firewall you are using. However, these days we recommend a service such as logmein.com instead of PCAnywhere for remote access, this does not require static IP or port forwarding and firewalls will let it through being that it's all done on port 80.

I may wind up trying that service before its all over. I went with PCA hoping it would cost less in the long run. So I just need static IP, port forwarding and possbly firewall config. on the host machine?

[rave]

i think your firewall should be top priority. there are a few port scanning utilities online you can use to see how secure you are behind your firewall. www.grc.com comes to mind. there is a port scanner somewhere on the page. you dont need a static ip if you set up something like dyndns.org
i use it to forward traffic to my blog hosted on my laptop and so i can easily ssh in
you need a router that supports dyndns services.

[mojo]

To use the scanner at grc.com, go here, http://www.grc.com/default.htm and scroll down to shields up and use that. There's a lot of great tools on that website, it's just not organzied very well.

[phm14]

Thanks for the suggestions-I appreciate the help.
At this point I have a static IP set up for the host, and have completed port forwarding (5631,5632) on the host router via Netgear tech. I've tried connecting to the host using both the internal and external IPs and am still getting the "cannot connect to specified device" error message. How do I diagnose this connection issue? Is there a resource that can help me locate and configure firewalls or other issues causing connection failures? Symantec hasn't been much help, and so far I've driven 3 70 mile round trips between these two PCs trying to get this setup. I am currently at the remote and it looks like I'll be making at least one more trip to the host

[mojo]

Symantec? There's your problem, get rid of norton internet security.

[glc]

He said nothing about NIS, PCA is a Symantec product.

Between locations, you need to connect to the external IP. Make sure you have the correct protocols forwarded, one port is TCP and the other is UDP.

It's sounding more and more like you should try logmein.com - a simple one PC account without file transfer or remote printing is free, and you get a trial of the full featured Pro account as part of the deal.