Help me remotely connect to my work PC

minirhyder

I'd like to remotely connect to my work PC from home. This is allowed and done by other employees, so no problem there.

All my attempts have failed so far. It just won't find the PC to connect to. I enter the external IP address of my work PC into Remove Desktop Connection (though I've also tried RealVNC and TightVNC) and I get "cannot find host" errors.
I feel like I'm missing a puzzle piece here or something.
I have "Allow remote connections to this computer" selected in System Properties on both PC's.
At home I'm running Win7 Ultimate and at work I have Win8 Enterprise.

Why haven't I asked my coworkers for help?

Because in the first couple of weeks a coworkers asked if I know how to remote desktop and I said yes (I have done it before) but hey turns out nope! It's awkward. And I realize I was dumb.

zerzhul

It's possible that you need to VPN into your company's network before it will allow you to remote desktop to the computer in question. That's how it's worked at every job I've ever had that allowed this sort of thing.

You should be able to ask IT about it if you have an IT department.

bowen

It's either going to need a VPN or someone's going to need to setup port forwarding to properly handle this.

grouch993

Two things. First, give teamviewer a try. Second, tell the coworker that you have worked with remote sessions before, but something about this one is not working for you. Then ask them to help you.

minirhyder

So browsing through the helpdesk FAQ it seems that there is a VPN in place. And there are directions on how to VPN into the network.
So once I do that, where do I theoretically go from there?

@grouch993, doesn't TeamViewer require someone to be on the other end to accept the request?

bowen

It should work via the VPN, yup.

Teamviewer doesn't necessarily need it if you pay for the right version and set it up to not need permission.

Myiagros

VPN gives your home PC an address on your work network, RDP will then work. You should be given software to install and an account to use for the VPN.

oldsak

If all else fails, there's always chrome remote desktop.

PedroAsani

Once you connect via VPN, you are looking for the INTERNAL IP address, not the external one. If they are assigned by DHCP, you may need to connect via Computer Name.

minirhyder

All right guys, I am IN!
Thanks for all your help!