Using a router is a common way to connect to the internet. It is favoured by most ISP’s who supply a free router with most broadband internet packages. Most routers have built-in hardware firewall which operates separately from Windows firewall.

Many people use RealVNC, UltraVNC, TightVNC to access their PC remotely. However most find it difficult to setup correctly and are unable to connect to their PC. This article will show you exactly what to do. The router i am using is Netgear DG834G however most Netgear router’s have similar control panel so the steps below should be similar on Netgear DG834GT, DG834N and other Netgear models. If you are using a different brand router then the port forwarding steps will be different, but the port setting 5900 will be the same.

Step 1. Download and install any version of VNC.

Step 2. Logon to your Netgear Router control panel. The defult control panel ip address for Netgear router is 192.168.0.1. So type this ip address on your browser’s address bar as shown:

http://192.168.0.1

The router will request the user id and password.

The default user id is: admin

The default password is: password

Now you will have access to the control panel. On the left side of the control panel you will have all the options listed.

Step 3. Click on Services and choose Add custom services. Fill in the box exactly as shown below.

Step 4: Click Apply. This will create a service called VNC with the port 5900 as shown:

Step 5: Click on Firewall Rules and click Add under the Inbound Services. Choose all the options shown on the image below. Please note that the Send to Lan Server ip address will be different on your computer. You need to choose a fixed ip address for your computer as its most likely set to dynamic ip address which changes all the time. If you don’t know how to do this on your operating system then read the following articles:

How to install and configure a network card in Windows 7 and Windows Vista

How to install and configure a network card inWindows XP

Once you fixed your ip address please type it in the box and click Apply.

Step 6: Your firewall rules will now be applied and you will get a page similar to below:

Finally click on Apply at the bottom of the page and the firewall rules will take effect.

You should now be able to connect to your PC using VNC. If you are still having trouble connecting then it could be because of Windows firewall. In this case you need the to add the VNC exeptions to Windows firewall as well. To do so read the following guide:

Add VNC to Windows XP Firewall Exceptions.

Are you having trouble connecting to your Windows XP computer remotely via VNC? The common mistake most people make or fail to realise is that you must add the correct VNC port to Windows XP firewall exceptions. As Windows XP comes with a built-in “Internet Connection Firewall” any ports or applications that are not added to the firewall exceptions will be blocked.

To create an exception for VNC follow these instructions :

1. Click Start -> Control Panel -> Windows Firewall.
2. Click the exceptions tab
3. Click Add port. Name the port VNC, Choose Port number 5900, make sure you select TCP and click OK.
4. The VNC rule you created will now be listed under the firewall exceptions window with a tick to indicate that it is selected. Now click on OK to complete.

You should now be able to connect to your PC using VNC. If you are still having trouble connecting then it could be because you are using a router that has built in hardware firewall. In this case you need the to add the exceptions to the router as well. To do so read the following guide:

Port forwarding for VNC on Netgear DG834G/GT/N Router

If you want to add your computer to a network or a network device like a router then you need to install or configure your network card. Every new computer and motherboard you buy nowadays has a built in network port known as RJ45 socket. If you have an older computer or a motherboard that does not have a built in RJ45 socket then your only option is to add a PCI or USB network card if you wish to connect to a network. For this guide i will assume that you do not have a network card installed. If you already have a network card then you can skip step 1 to 3.

Step 1: Install a network card. This could be PCI card or USB network card adaptor.

If you are installing a PCI card you need to open your computer case and push the PCI network card into an empty PCI slot. It is quite simple and straight forward. If you are using a USB network adaptor you simply need to plug it into an empty USB port.

PCI Network card :	USB Network Adaptor:

Step 2: Install the device driver for the network card. Windows will detect that you have installed a new hardware. In most cases it will install the drivers automatically. If not, you need to install the drivers manually from the CD  supplied with the network card. I am using Windows 7 operating system to demonstrate each step. If you are using Windows Vista the steps will be very similar. If you are using Windows XP it will be slightly different so follow this guide instead.

Step 3: After the drivers have been installed successfully you can see a network card listed under windows device manager. To go to the device manager click Start -> Control Panel -> System and Security -> Device Manager.

You will see a network card listed under the device manager similar to the image below:

Step 4: Go to network sharing center by clicking Start -> Control panel -> Network and Internet -> Network and Sharing Center. As you can see from the image below the computer name tiger is connected to a network and has access to the Internet. This indicates that our network card is installed correctly and managed to get connection to our network. In this case it is connected to a ADSL router.

Step 5: Check your local area connections by clicking  on change adaptor settings link on the left side of Network and Sharing center. You will get an icon similar to below:

Step 6: Double click on Local Area Connection icon which will display your LAN status. It shows the network connection duration, the speed of the connection, number of bytes sent  and received etc.

Step 7: Click Details to see the  Network connection details. You will see some very import connection details. Inside the red highlighted area you will see DHCP Enable is set to Yes and your IP Address listed. DHCP means (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol). Basically its a feature built into most Routers or server operating systems which automatically assigns an IP address to the client computer. In our case the Router is the DHCP server and our computer is the client. Please note the dynamic IP address assigned by a DHCP server is random and can change next time you reboot your computer or the router.

Step 8: Close the Network connection details. Click Properties -> (on Network area connections status) -> Internet protocol version 4 (TCP/IPv4) -> Properties. As you can see everything is set to automatic. This means the DHCP server assigns everything automatically as mentioned above.

Step 9: If you have many computers on a network i.e. your Desktop PC, Your Laptop, and your PS3 console its a good idea to fix the IP Address for each device. This is called static IP address. By fixing the IP address you can easily identify each computer on the network. This is what i will do below. I will choose my IP address as 192.168.0.100. The subnet mask will be automatically set to 255.255.255.0.  Default gateway is 192.168.0.1. The gateway IP address is normally the IP address of your router. Preferred DNS server is also the IP Address of your router, although you can use other DNS server like Open DNS IP address.

Step 10: You can now check if the static settings have taken effect by clicking on Details on Local Area connection status as you have done on Step 6. Finally you will see all the settings that you have made in the previous step has taken effect. You will notice that the DHCP enable is set to No, as we have set each value manually.

That’s it, you have managed to install and configure your network device successfully. You have also learned how to use dynamic and static IP Address to connect to a network.

If you want to add your computer to a network or a network device like a router then you need to install or configure your network card. Every new computer and motherboard you buy nowadays has a built in network port known as RJ45 socket. If you have an older computer or a motherboard that does not have a built in RJ45 socket then your only option is to add a PCI or USB network card if you wish to connect to a network. For this guide i will assume that you do not have a network card installed. If you already have a network card then you can skip step 1 to 3.

Step 1: Install a network card. This could be PCI card or USB network card adaptor.

If you are installing a PCI card you need to open your computer case and push the PCI network card into an empty PCI slot. It is quite simple and straight forward. If you are using a USB network adaptor you simply need to plug it into an empty USB port.

PCI Network card :	USB Network Adaptor:

Step 2: Install the device driver for the network card. Windows will detect that you have installed a new hardware. In most cases it will install the drivers automatically. If not, you need to install the drivers manually from the CD supplied with the network card. I am using Windows XP operating system to demonstrate each step. If you are using Windows Vista or Windows 7 then you need to follow this guide.

Step 3: After the drivers have been installed successfully you can see a network card listed under windows device manager. To go to the device manager click Start -> Control Panel -> System -> Hardware tab -> Device Manager.

You will see a network card listed under the device manager similar to the image below:

Step 4: Go to network connections by clicking Start -> My network places -> View network connections. You will get an icon similar to below:

Step 5: Double click on Local Area Connection icon which will display your LAN status. It shows the network connection duration, the speed of the connection, number of bytes sent and received etc.

Step 6: Click on the Support tab to see the Local Area connection status. You will see some very important connection details. You will see the Address type is assigned by DHCP followed by the IP address of the computer.  DHCP means (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol). Basically its a feature built into most Routers or server operating systems which automatically assigns an IP address to the client computer. In our case the Router is the DHCP server and our computer is the client. Please note the dynamic IP address assigned by a DHCP server is random and can change next time you reboot your computer or the router.

Step 7: Click on the general tab -> Properties -> Internet protocol (TCP/IP) -> Properties.  As you can see the IP address and DNS server address is set to obtain IP address automatically. This means the DHCP server assigns everything automatically as mentioned above.

Step 8: If you have many computers on a network i.e. your Desktop PC, Your Laptop, and your PS3 console its a good idea to fix the IP Address for each device. This is called static IP address. By fixing the IP address you can easily identify each computer on the network. This is what i will do below. I will choose my IP address as 192.168.2.100. The subnet mask will be automatically set to 255.255.255.0. Default gateway is 192.168.2.1. The gateway IP address is normally the IP address of your router. Preferred DNS server is also the IP Address of your router, although you can use other DNS servers like Open DNS IP address.

Step 9: You can now check if the static settings have taken effect by clicking on Support tab on Local Area connection status as you have done on Step 5. Finally you will see all the setting that you have made in the previous step has taken effect. You will notice that the Address type is now set to Manually configured.

That’s it, you have managed to install and configure your network device successfully. You have also learned how to use dynamic and static IP address to connect to a network.