Remote Access to Your Home Desktop Using No-IP

In the last few weeks a co-worker introduce me to www.NO-IP.com. At the time I was looking for a way that I could access my home computer from work. With NO-IP.com you can do just that.

NO-IP.com provides a way to connect to your home computer, or any other computer for that matter, from anywhere as long as you have access to the web. The connection is established by normal means through Remote Desktop. Under normal circumstances you can configure your computer and access it through the router's IP. The problem with that is that your router's IP is Dynamic. Meaning that it changes frequently. So while you may be able to access it one moment you will not be able to access it the next.

To solve dynamic IP address problem NO-IP.com provides you with a way to connect to it through a web address and it handles the connection and IP mapping for you.

Before you begin to connect to your home computer there is a series of steps that you must complete. No-Ip has the complete instructions, so I will not attempt to duplicate the instructions instead I will provide you with the high level steps.

1. Set-up an account with NO-IP.com. The account is free and you upgraded base on additional needs. To simply remote you do not need to upgrade your account.

2. Once you have created an account login into NO-IP.com and go the Hosts/Redirects sections and add a new host. You can name the new host wathever you want. NO-IP.com will add the suffix no-ip.biz at the end. For example mine is myname.no-ip.biz. An important thing to keep in mind at this stage is that you must perform this step from the computer that you plan to remote into.

3. You will need to read their support article on using No-IP with your DSL/Cable modem. This article will instruct you on how to set your router settings to forward internet requests(Port Forwarding) to a given port.

4. You will need to also add this port to your firewall. To do that you will have to open up the firewall from your control panel and configure that setting there.

5. Additionally you will have to assign a static ip to each computer that you want to be able to remote into. This is so that the IP will not change each time the computer is assigned an IP by the router. You should assign an IP to your computer that is outside of your router's dynamic IPs. You can check the range of dynamic IPs in your router by checking your routers settings. There is also documentation at No-IP on how to do this.

6. You will have to configure your computer for remote access. The full article at no-ip has instructions on how to do this.

7. Once you perform all the steps outline in the main article you will have access to remote into your desktop at home just as if the desktop was part of your LAN.

With this capability I am now able to access my computer at home. I can always count on accessing files. I can download items that cannot be downloaded through the work network due to websense. Downloads go to my home desktop so the downloads are also faster. I can download and install apps on my home computer. Downloads can then be copied over to my work station. I can also view any website without having to worry about websense.

Having this capability is simply awesome. I recommend this anyone that ever needs to access their home computer remotely.

Comments

Fernando Zamora said…
BTW - I can even access my home computer with my iPhone by using an iPhone application known as Remote Desktop Lite. There is a full version of the application which provides some better features. Surprisiginly enough the little application is much faster than expected.
November 20, 2009 at 5:57 PM
Unknown said…
I must admit, that's pretty slick. I'll have to try NO-IP for myself. I guess I worry most about security, so I had to go with RHUB's appliance. It's Fort Knox.
September 20, 2013 at 12:21 AM
bhaskar said…

Nice Article, thank you for sharing.
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June 10, 2021 at 5:23 PM
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