Remote Dial up into WINXP
I was asked to create this tutorial on dial-up access for Windows XP boxes. (I understand that this is supposed to work along the same lines on Windows 2000 pro boxes too). This tut is just for win XP pro and has been tested on my own machine as well.
The first step is to set up your computer to receive an incoming call over the modem for the purpose of accessing information from the hard drive. The nice thing about Win XP, is that if you type in the password incorrectly once, it disconnects and you have to dial back in. This is great, especially if someone has found your number with a war dialer. Trying to brute force is a major pain. :)
Ok, to set your XP box, go to start, connect to, and show all connections. Then click on create a new connection in the left hand side of the screen. Micro$oft has thoughtfully created a wizard to help you :-) Put a dot in the radio button that says Setup avanced connection. Then put a dot in the radio button, Accept Incoming Connections. Choose the device that you want to use to accept connections from (ie. for dial-up, choose the modem that you want to use) Next, it will ask you whether or not you want to allow vpn connections. For general purposes, you don't need to allow it, so put a dot in the button for don't allow vpn. (this configures the XP firewall) Next, it is going to ask who to allow or not allow to dial in. You can either choose an existing acct our create one. It is best to create one as Win XP is based on NT and sometimes acts like NT. It does in this case. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!!!! When you create an acct, you want to make sure that it matches up with the user on the remote machine. (ie, if you login to windows as eliteuser with password ******, then you need to make the acct with eliteuser and pswd ******. NT sometimes won't let you connect cause it checks to see who the user is on the remote machine. (Windows goes back and forth on this depending on the mood it is in) So, it is best to play it safe. Once this is done, there is one more step to do before your connection is set up. You are going to be asked which protocols you want to allow to connect. Make sure all installed protocols are checked. This decreases the chances of your not connecting due to a protocol conflict. Then, click on the Finish button. Now, your XP box is set up. It will automatically pick up after 2 to 4 rings and give you a "handshake" *NOTE: this will mess up any answering machine pickups and incoming calls, if they are not remote calls. One last thing to do before you are completely set up. Go into my computer and share all the files and\or drives that you wish to have remote access. If you are concerned about security, then create a separate folder for just remote access and put a copy of all files you wish to access in there....That way, if (by some miraculous chance) someone should gain access, they won't mess up the original files. Further security would be to encrypt the files and\or zip them with a password required to unzip. Like I stated before, I believe that it would be incredibly time consuming and almost impossible to crack the password and gain the connection. However, as my own motto says, If man can build it, man can break it :).
The second part of the remote setup deals with setting up the remote machine. Basically, all you need to do is to set up a profile (in nt versions only) that uses the same username and password that you used for the remote access (if it is not already set up.) Next, we are going to create a connectoid for connecting to the main computer. If it is a 9x box, then go to My computer and double click on the dial-up networking icon. If the connection wizard doesn't come up, then double click on make a new connection. Make sure you have it set to dial the number that the main computer is on as well as to prompt for a password. In win2k, go to Start, Settings, Network and dial-up connections, and make a new connection. In XP, Go to Start, Connect to, Show all Connections, and then Create a new connection. This time do it for connecting to a remote computer. Again, make sure that it prompts for a password and the number for the computer you are dialing in to.
That should be all. When you make a connection, make sure that you are in the profile that matches the username and password of the acct on the computer you are trying to reach. Like stated before, You only get one chance to login before you have to redial.
Well, I hope this short tutorial helps those who need to dial into their machines remotely. If there are any questions/comments and/or corrections, please send me a note and I will try to correct it. I appreciate your patience with my first attempt to write a tutorial. Take care :)
