Symantec pcanywhere 12 connection problem in wifi cafe

"marcy" hath wroth:

Nope. For PC Anywhere, you need port forwarding to work on the destination router at your office but not on the originating end. It should work unless the cafe router is configured to block OUTGOING ports 5631 and 5632.

I don't know what you mean by "attach" (unless you're talking Novell Netware 3.x). What error message are you getting?

I use PC Anywhere 10.1(?) for most everything, including at coffee shops and I never have to do anything at the coffee shop end.

Possible problems (in order starting with most likely) are:

1. Wrong IP address at the target end. Dynamic DNS?
2. Port forwarding misconfigured at destination router.
3. Mismatched port numbers at either end (they're configurable).
4. Blocking OUTOGING 5631/5632 at cafe end.
5. ISP is blocking 5631/5632.

Thanks Jeff!!! You answered my question perfectly. I really appreciate you and people like you who are so kind as to share their knowledge. Thanks again!!! You are a dream come true.

I am back at the office on Monday and will forward those ports. Plus, they changed the ISP to static. So with PC Anywhere, I have to put in the IP (the single outside IP). How does the router know which PC to connect me to?? Is it because we can only have one PC setup with PCAnywhere inside the router?? And therefore the ports automatically forward to that application???

Thanks Jeff!!

"marcy" hath wroth:

Careful here. Most routers assume that the destination PC (i.e. your desktop) will have a non-changeable static IP address. That means that your desktop must either be configured for a static IP address (that is also outside the DHCP range of your office router), *OR* if your unspecified router supports it, be configured for "static DHCP", "static Lease", or some other buzzword.

I think you mean changed the WAN (internet) IP address.

Which IP? The IP of the office router on the internet or the IP address of your desktop? If it's the router WAN (intenet) IP, you've wasted your money as a DDNS (dynamic DNS) service, such as dyndns.com, could have done it for free.

Yes, I guess so. The *ONLY* reason you would want to have a static IP address on the internet these days is if you're running a mail server or DNS server behind the firewall.

I wished it were that easy. In your unspecified model router is a page labelled "Port Forwarding" or "Virtual Server". Same thing in this case. Let's say that your desktop IP address is a *STATIC* (i.e. does not change) IP address of 192.168.22.123. In the "port forwarding" table, you would have two entries.

Incoming port number 5631 Protocol TCP Destination IP 192.168.22.123 Destination port 5631

Incoming port number 5632 Protocol UDP Destination IP 192.168.22.123 Destination port 5632

Note that some routers have pre-configured "virtual servers" setup for PC Anywhere and other popular applications.

Here's the Semantec explanation of how it's done.

Note that this assumes that you have only one machine and it's running on the default ports of 5631/5632. Do NOT use the DMZ feature in the router as it opens ALL the port to your machine, effectively disarming any firewall protection in the router.

Note that there's no easy way to test if the firewall is configured from a machine inside your firewall. You gotta be on the internet somewhere to try it.

Note: This has nothing to do with wireless.

It was free. The WAN IP is going to be a static IP address as of today. I can also change that office PC to have a static IP if that is what you are saying.

The router is a Netopia 3347NWG 006

Thinking about Monday now. I understand how to make PC static IP, but I have seen in more than one place the same thing you say, "that is also outside the DHCP range of your office router". How do I know the range of the Netopia 3347NWG 0006? There are three computers in the office. So, I figure a "safe" IP to assign the PC with the PCAnywhere host on it will be like, 192.168.1.10 ??

"marcy" hath wroth:

Read the manual perhaps? Incidentally, I just bought one of these routers and have had it bouncing around my truck for about a week. I won't have time to play with it for a while.

Data Sheet:

User Reference:

See the IP Easy Setup on Page 6-6. The DHCP IP range is 192.168.1.100 to 192.168.1.200. Stay out of this range please. Also, don't use 192.168.1.1 which is the router.

Probably safe, unless some other device or machine is already using it. Try pinging 192.168.1.10 from another workstation just to make sure. If there's no response, the IP is all yours.

However, there's another complication. I think (not sure) this router can optionally terminate a VPN connection. That means that the VPN setup page also has a range of IP addresses that it will dispense to VPN clients. If you're using this feature (very handy, very useful, and very secure), check on the IP address range it uses. This is an upgrade option, so you may not have this feature.

Thanks so much!! You are a virtual fountain (pun intended :-) of information. Now you have me curious about why I would want to set up a VPN. :-)

"marcy" hath wroth:

Security and the prevention of sniffing. You don't need it using PC Anywhere, which has it's own built in encryption. However, if you're at a wirless hot spot, and you want to read your email online without using PC Anywhere, it's easy enough for anyone to sniff your traffic and extract whatever they find interesting. All the wireless traffic is unencrypted. One solution is to setup an encrypted VPN tunnel to your office, and check your email through the tunnel. Another is to use the VPN server provided by your ISP or a commercial service. The bad news is that it's rather slow and limited by your office DSL bandwidth.

Here's an example of an ISP that provides VPN termination service for their travelling users:

I am at my house looking at the pcaw computer. My quick connect just says the status is waiting. I see the correct name of the computer so I know I am connected to it or at lease looking at it, but am unable to see the screen.

Not sure what isn't working at this point. How do I test if the router is forwarding ports??

thanks!!!

"marcy" hath wroth:

Open instruction manual and try again. You've just successfully started the PC Anywhere *SERVER*, not the client. The "waiting" message is what the server should show when waiting for a connection. If you're trying to connect to the office, you need to run the PC Anywhere client, not the server.

1. Drag your laptop to the office. Plug it into the local network. Find the IP address of your desktop. Connect using the PC Anywhere client to this IP address. It should work.
2. Next, drag you laptop home. You know the IP address of the router. Yes, it's different from your desktop. Try to connect. It should work.

Note: This has nothing to do with wireless.

Thanks Jeff,

I'm not sure what my problem was but I have it figured out and have successfully remoted in.

Thanks so much!!!!!!!!