Port forwarding in Windows 2000 Desktop 1

[entaroadun]

Please excuse me if this question is simple, but I am a newb to such things.

There is a client/server application which requires TCP/IP connections from the client to an app server thru port 34952. Unfortunately, the app server is behind a firewall. Corporate security refuses to punch a hole in the firewall for this port for all IP addresses so our users can connect; the best they will offer is punching holes for the port for specific IP ranges. This requires all of our users to get static IP addresses (a nightmare in and of itself). This also puts a limitation on user mobility: if they connect from a different site or use VPN from home, their IP will be different and they won't be able to connect.

My question is whether or not we can set up a terminal server outside the firewall to bypass this. My thought is if we have a fixed machine that can access the app server, then we can try to route connections through it.

We use Windows 2000 Desktop (can't get server licenses in our org). Is this possible? Can we forward connections from this machine? Can multiple people connect thru this machine? The application does allow multiple sessions and logins from the same source IP. If we insert a middleman, how does data travelling back from the app server get routed back to the appropriate client?

Thank you all very much in advance for your help.

 

[bcastner]

You cannot use Terminal Server on Win2k Desktop. It requires a Server edition of Windows 2000.

 

[netwho]

There’s a little tool called fpipe (

http://www.foundstone.com/)

who can do port redirection on a windows box. However, I'm not sure how reliable it is for day to day usage…

__________________________________
DOS -> Windows -> Linux -> FreeBSD
**** The evolution of a geek ****

 

[entaroadun]

Thanks, netwho. I will try it out to see how production ready it is.

bcastner, what if we could obtain W2K server, or a box with any other OS to use to redirect? We can certainly do a little shopping without corporate security being aware. What method would you recommend? It doesn't have to be W2K; we can get a tiny machine on a good network segment that runs Linux for this purpose.

Thanks to all for your help!

 

[bcastner]

Look at the Citrix Metaframe solution.