Notes on firewalls

If you have a firewall, it must have rules allowing us to connect to the recovery computer. The required rules depend on the remote control program and the type of firewall. If you cannot modify the firewall, you must download and install VNC on the recovery computer.

Firewall setup for Windows® Remote Desktop

Remote Desktop uses the RDP at port 3389. You must open port 3389 at the firewall. For example, on Efficient Networks' SpeedStream® and Flowpoint® routers, the following commands are used (<ip-addr> is the IP address of the recovery computer):

remote ipfilter insert input accept -p tcp -dp 3389 -da <ip-addr> internet

remote ipfilter insert output accept -p tcp -dp 3389 -sa <ip-addr> internet

Remote Control through firewalls

If the recovery computer is behind a firewall but access rules cannot be changed, you must use VNC. You can download VNC from http://www.realvnc.com. The procedure is illustrated below by a series of screen snapshots while using the Free Edition of VNC.