Windows Home Server 2011 : Connecting via the Internet (part 1) - Connecting with Your Router’s IP Address

One of the most significant features in the Windows Home Server package is the capability to securely connect to a computer on your home network via an Internet connection. So, for example, if you’re in a coffee shop before a big meeting and you remember that you forgot to copy to your notebook the updated presentation file you were working on last night, you can connect to the Internet using the merchant’s Wi-Fi access, connect to your home machine, and then download the file.

In fact, there are all kinds of useful ways to take advantage of remote Internet connections: You can check your home email; upload a file you’ve been working on as a quick-and-dirty backup system; transfer files from the office; or start a program such as a backup or defrag so that it’s done by the time you get home. The possibilities are endless.

Windows enables you to connect to a remote computer via the Internet, but it did this using the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), and setting up the machines to connect securely wasn’t straightforward. Windows Home Server simplifies things a bit by not using RDP for the initial Internet connection from the local computer to your home network. Instead, Windows Home Server initiates the connection on port 443, which uses the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol to create a highly secure point-to-point connection between you and Windows Home Server and then uses port 4125 to set up a secure RDP channel. The port that provides the bulk of the Remote Desktop data transfers is 3389, but Windows Home Server only uses that port for communications between the server and the network client. This means that port 3389—the standard RDP port that all malicious hackers know about—is not exposed to the Internet.

Windows Home Server 2011 gives you three ways to connect to your home network over the Internet:

• Using your router’s IP address.

• Using a domain name that is set up and maintained using a dynamic DNS service.

• Using a domain name that is set up and maintained with Windows Home Server.

The next few sections take you through the details for each method.

1. Connecting with Your Router’s IP Address

Setting up your system to allow remote connections through the Internet using the router’s IP address is easier with Windows Home Server than it is with Vista or XP, but you still have a few hoops to jump through. Here’s a summary of the steps involved.

Determining the Windows Home Server IP Address

To ensure that the incoming data gets to Windows Home Server, you need to know the server’s IP address. Ideally, you configured Windows Home Server with a static IP address . This is the best way to go because if you use DHCP on the server instead, you have to modify the gateway/router port forwarding (discussed in the next section) every time the server’s IP address changes.

If you didn’t set up Windows Home Server with a static IP address, or if you don’t remember the static IP address, you can get the address via the Windows Home Server Dashboard or by following these steps:

Setting Up Port Forwarding on the Router

If your network uses a router, gateway, or other hardware firewall, you need to configure it to forward to the Windows Home Server computer and data sent on the following ports:

• Port 443 (SSL) using the TCP protocol

• Port 4125 (RDP) using the TCP protocol

This is port forwarding, and you can either get Windows Home Server to configure this for you, or you can do it by hand.

Letting Windows Home Server Configure the Router

If your router or gateway supports Universal Plug and Play (UPnP), Windows Home Server may be able to configure it for you automatically. Here are the steps to follow:

1.	Open the Windows Home Server Dashboard.
2.	Click Server Settings to open the Server Settings dialog box.
3.	Select the Remote Web Access tab.
4.	In the Router section, click Set Up. (I’m assuming here that you’ve already turned on Remote Web Access as I described earlier. If not, click Turn On, instead.) Windows Home Server attempts to configure your router, as shown in Figure 1. Figure 1. The Turn On Remote Web Access Wizard configures your router for remote access.
5.	Click Close. If the configuration was successful, the Remote Web Access tab’s Router section shows the router IP address and model, the Windows Home Server IP address, and the Windows Home Server physical address (that is, the Media Access Control—MAC, for short—address), as shown in Figure 2. Figure 2. With Remote Web Access turned on and the router configured, Windows Home Server Dashboard shows the router and server addresses.
6.	Click OK. Tip If Windows Home Server fails to configure your router, consider upgrading the router’s firmware. This seems to solve many UPnP problems, particularly with Linksys routers. To upgrade the firmware, go to the router manufacturer’s site, find the support or downloads section, and then download the latest firmware version of your device. Then access the router’s setup page (use a wired connection, not a wireless one) and look for the page that enables you to apply the new firmware version.

Configuring the Router By Hand

If Windows Home Server couldn’t configure the router, you can always do it yourself, although the steps you follow depend on the device. Figure 3 shows the Port Forwarding screen of the router on my system. In this case, I’ve forwarded the two ports—443 and 4125—so that any data sent to them over TCP is sent automatically to the address 192.168.1.254, which is the static IP address of my Windows Home Server. Consult your device documentation to learn how to set up port forwarding.

Figure 3. On your router/gateway, forward ports 443 and 4125 to the Windows Home Server IP address.

Determining the Router’s External IP Address

To connect to your network via the Internet, you need to specify an IP address instead of a computer name. The IP address you use is the address that your ISP assigns to your router when that device connects to the Internet. This is called the router’s external IP address (to differentiate it from the router’s internal IP address, which is the address you use to access the router locally). Although some ISPs provide static IP addresses to the router, it’s more likely that the address is dynamic and changes each time the gateway connects.

Either way, you need to determine the router’s current external IP address. One way to do this is to log on to the router’s setup pages and view some sort of status page. However, Windows Home Server 2011 makes this easier by showing you the router’s current IP address in the Dashboard. Open the Dashboard, click Server Settings, and then click Remote Web Access. In the Router section, the Router IP value tells you the router current external IP address.

When you set up your remote connection, you’ll connect to the router’s IP address, which will then forward your connection (thanks to your efforts in the previous section) to Windows Home Server.