Network Remote Access Troubles?

[097]

I wanted to use the remote desktop feature on my windows 8 laptop & sync up to my other PC's throughout the house. When I do, they fail & it took a bit of effort to find out that I have two NAT's & that's the problem according to the troubleshooter. To be clear, I have no flippin' clue what a NAT is. I've got an intel i7 dell laptop running win8 & an i5 running win7 dell desktop also a piece of crap acer on win7 as well, two kindles, two ps3's, and one Bluetooth phone, plus whatever my friends have on my guest network. I have dsl service, but no gateway, I have an ADSL+2 modem & a router that broadcasts 2.4 & 5hz (I think) on two separate networks (home & guest). If any of this just pops out & says 'hey there's ya problem right there"......by all means, do tell.

[Tracy L]

Generally if you only have one router you shouldn't have double Nat issues! One exception to that is IF your modem supplies a "local" address instead of a public one and then you add a router which also supplies a "local" address you now have "double Nat" . There are a ton of ADSL 2 modems that have to be programmed to "bridge" mode or to "use public address" or they do issue a NAT (network address translation) or "local private" IP address.
Login to the router, find the status page. If you have a WAN (internet address) that starts with 10.x.x.x or 172..x.x or 192.168.x.x then your modem is using NAT! Those address ranges are all used for local, private networks! The good news is that none of your computers should be part of the problem...double Nat is a modem/router/network issue. Unless you are connection sharing the client devices aren't the problem.

Now, all that being said...if your computers are all local and not on the internet double Nat should not be happening, or put correctly should not be an issue!!!! The issue only affects the internet connection. Check them, be sure they are all connected to the "home" network and none are on the guest network!! You also have to tell the local firewalls to allow RDP! Or be sure you allow the entire local network!

PS: if you don't have a gateway, how do you get to the internet?? Every network connected to the internet has a gateway! In your case, its the modem/router combined that deliver the gateway address.