How to Remote into Work PC from Home over RDP

How can I remote into work PC from home?

“I am a mother and sometimes I need to work at home o take after my daughter. Is there a way to let me remote into my work PC from home so I don't need to backup everything? Can I use Remote Desktop? Is that complicated to use? Any advice will be appreciated!"

How to remote into work PC from home over RDP

Normally, our work computer and home computer are not under the same network, which makes it much more difficult to use RDP to remote into work PC from home or remote into home computer from work. Basically, you'll go through three parts.

• Part 1. Prepare the host computer for remote connections
• Part 2. Set up port forwarding as the two devices are not under the same networks
• Part 3. Start to connect to work PC from home over RDP

Part 1. Prepare the host computer for remote connections

Check out your system edition

Go to Control Panel > System and Security > System and look for Windows edition. If it is  Windows 10 Home edition, it doesn't support RDP. Then you need to Upgrade Windows 10 Home to Windows 10 Pro.

Enable Remote Desktop  

If you have checked that your work computer is Windows 10 Pro, you need to make sure that the host computer allows remote control. The detailed steps are listed here: Start > Settings > System > Remote Desktop, and turn on Enable Remote Desktop.

Check the PC name of your host computer

Finally, you need to know the PC name of your computer. The detailed steps are listed here: Start > Settings > System > Remote Desktop, and your PC name is under the “How to connect to this PC”. Note down the PC name of your work computer, you’ll need it when you try to remote into work PC from home.

Part 2. Set up port forwarding

Port forwarding is a technique that is used to allow external devices access to computers services on private networks. It does this by mapping an external port to an internal IP address and port. Therefore, to implement port forwarding, we need to configure the static IP address first.

How to get a static IP address?

Step 1. Click Start and then click Settings. Find Network & Internet and then click it.

Step 2. On the Network & Internet interface, find Advanced network settings, click Change adapter options below.

Step 3. Right-click your network and then click Properties.

Step 4. Tick Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4), and click Properties.

Step 5. Turn on Use the following IP address in the General tab, change the IP address to a valid local IP address outside the scope of the local DHCP, set the Subnet mask, and set the Default gateway. Then turn on Use the following DNS server addresses, set the corresponding address in the Preferred DNS server, and click OK.

How to find the public IP address?

After completing the above steps, it means that you’ve finished setting the static IP. But the static IP can only be used in LAN environment, we also need to get the external IP address (that is, the public IP address) to remotely control PC over Internet.

First, open the Chrome browser, enter “what is my IP” in the search box, and then you can see the public IP address (remember not to share your public IP address with anyone to avoid security issues).

How to implement port forwarding?

Step 1. Press Win + R to invoke the Run dialog box. Type in “cmd” and press OK. Then type “ipconfig” and press Enter to check the IPv4 Address and Default Gateway.

Step 2. Enter the device gateway address in the browser address bar, enter the correct user name and password to log in to the router, confirm that port forwarding is enabled, find and click Add profile.

Step 3. Fill in the corresponding information to create a new port, you can refer to the following:

• Service name: fill in whatever you want
• Protocol: TCP
• External port: 3389
• Internal port: 3389
• Internal IP address: computer IP address, such as 10.1.4.1

  

Part 3. Start to connect to work PC from home over RDP

 Step 1. Search for Remote Desktop Connection in the Search box on the client computer. And then open it.

Step 2. Enter the public IP address we found above and the user name in the Remote Desktop Connection interface to achieve connection.

Remote Desktop is also available for other devices, like Android or iOS devices. If you are using an Android or iOS device at home, then you can download it from Google Play and the Mac App Store for free. After finishing the installation, you could repeat the steps mentioned above to start your remote connection.

An easier way to remote into work PC from home: AnyViewer

As you can see above, RDP has pretty many restrictions. For example, Windows versions, networks, etc. What if your work computer system doesn’t fit the requirements? How could you achieve remote connection then?

Here we recommend you a professional and free third-party remote control tool AnyViewer, which is the best RDP alternative. Why would we say so?

It doesn’t require an IP address or computer name to achieve a remote connection.

It can be used on two devices that are on different networks without setting up port forwarding or using a VPN.

It supports devices running multiple Windows versions, including Windows 10 Home Edition, while RDP can’t be used to connect to Windows 10 Home Edition (some other editions as well).

It can transfer files between computers remotely at a faster speed.

Step 1. If you want to get an important file on your work computer when you are working at home, the first thing you need to do is to download AnyViewer on both your work and home computer.

Step 2. Go to Log in, and then click Sign up. (If you already have signed up on its official website, you can log in directly.)

Step 3. Fill in the signup information.

Step 4. Then you can see you successfully logged in to AnyViewer. Your device will automatically be assigned to the account you've logged in to.

Step 5. Log in to the same AnyViewer account on the two devices, then you can achieve a direct file transfer by clicking File Transfer.

Step 6. Then a File Transfer dialog box will appear. You can click to access any files on the remote computer.

Step 7. Click the blue buttons with arrow to transfer files between the two devices. You can see the transfer status at the bottom of the File Transfer dialog box. Right-click to pause or remove the transfer task. The dialog can be closed when the transfer is complete.

★Tips: 

The maximum size of a single file that can be transferred for the free account is 100 MB, and the maximum number of files that can be transferred per time is 100. You can also upgrade your account to a professional or enterprise plan. What can a professional or enterprise plan brings to you:

Faster transfer speed. Transfer speed for a free account is 500 KB/s, and for a paid account is up to 10 MB/s.

Increasing number of files transferred in bulk.

Larger size of a single file that can be transferred.

More devices can be assigned to the same account for unattended remote access.

More Currently connected devices are displayed for management.

Connect in privacy mode to protect privacy.

Conclusion

This post mainly introduces how to remote into work PC from home over RDP and the third-party remote desktop software AnyViewer. To be frank, AnyViewer has a much easier operating process compared to RDP. If you're looking for an easy way to achieve remote connections, then you can choose it.