RDP Connection Problem

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I think I’m just missing something somewhere in setup, but I’ve run out of ideas for troubleshooting.  Web searches aren’t turning up anything useful.

At the office we have a server running Windows Server 2016, desktops on Windows 10 Pro (the one in question is currently build 1903).  We have a WatchGuard hardware firewall which comes with VPN software.

On my home laptop, Windows 10 Pro build 1909, I have the VPN client installed and I can connect to our server.  However, when I try to then connect to my desktop with RDP the computer can’t be found.  I’ve verified the computer name, and in fact I can RDP to it from the server (to which I RDP from the desktop, so it may not be a valid test).

Since we’re in a part of the country that doesn’t do well with snow — happens too infrequently to have good road clearing, we have lots of hills, and people around here are among the country’s worst drivers in the first place — working from home could become a necessity off and on over the next few weeks, so it would be nice to be able to get this set up properly.  Any ideas what I might be missing?  (After I get mine working I get to deal with getting access for my office manager from her iPad — oh, boy!)

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More info please.

Can you RDP to the PC from another on-site?
When you connect via the VPN where do you land? Server, PC, other?
What message do you get for “computer cannot be found”?
Are you able to ping the problem computer from anywhere?

cheers, Paul

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Once you RDP to the server you are inside the work network. The server knows the names of the computers on the network. So, RDP from the server can resolve the computer name to the correct IP address on the network. On your home PC, the work PC name is not known to the public (i.e. outside the work network) so there is no way to get the correct IP address. NOTE: if you stand up an RDP server you can access devices on the work network from the outside world if you have permission.

--Joe

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Thanks for your replies.  The problem turned out to be that I was using the wrong group name when trying to log into the desktop.  Once I got that figured out everything started working properly!

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Oh, yes, I should mention that the problem morphed throughout the process.  Originally I couldn’t even find the desktop, then when I did I couldn’t get logged in.  I was right that it was a setup issue; it was just that the necessary setup information comes from a couple different screens under Settings and I didn’t know that — I had the first screen but had to hunt for the second.

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