Remote Desktop Connection for Mac

Just to clarify: You mean you're running Windows on your MBP (under Parallels or BootCamp) and want to use Microsoft Remote Desktop to connect to another Windows box ?

Not Apple Remote Desktop connecting to Microsoft Remote Desktop ? (sorry, had to ask)

If it's the former then make sure the workgroup name is set correctly - often Apple will be .local and Windows .WORKGROUP

The one thing I would check would be on the XP machine -- make sure you have 'allow users to connect remotely to this machine' activated. From memory, I believe you can do this by:

1) Right-clicking My Computer
2) Select Properties
3) Select 'Remote' tab
4) Enable the 'allow remote users...' option

As well, I find that CoRD ( http://cord.sourceforge.net/) is better and faster (universal binary) than the Microsoft RDC tool, which needs to run under Rosetta.

Hope that helps.

I am using my Mac running the Mac OS ... to try and connect to my machine that has Windows XP Professional

On the PC right click on C: and Open Properties
Click the Sharing Tab then check [Share this folder on the Network] click [Apply] close Properties

On the MacBook Pro go to System Preferences/Sharing and turn on [Windows Sharing]
Close System Preferences
On to the top menu bar Go/Connect to Server
In the pop up box enter smb://nameofPC*
Log in with an appropriate PC username/password

* If you're not sure what this is;
On the PC open Control Panels/System
Click [Computer name]

I've successfully used the Microsoft Remote Desktop Client to connect to several XP Professional boxes... the version I'm running with is 1.0.3 of RDC

I believe you do have to enable the remote connection on the XP computer and I'm not sure if it will work well with XP Home. Maybe the cabled connection is separated from the wireless?

Try connecting your notebook to the network wired and see if you can RDC. If you can, then it's probably an issue with separation of your wireless network and the cabled network.

If you can't connect, check your configuration:

- in the control panel, go to the "system" control panel (if you can't find it, right click on the "my computer" in an explorer window or on the start bar and select "properties")
- click on the "Remote" tab and ensure under "Remote Desktop" the "Allow users to connect remotely to this computer" is enabled.

When that option is enabled and you click on "Apply" or "OK" for the System Properties dialog, Windows Firewall will be configured to allow connections. However, if you're using another firewall program on your XP box (e.g.: Norton Personal Firewall), you will have to manually configure it to work. Allow incoming TCP connections on port 3389 (I believe) and that should fix the problem.

Hope that helps!

If this has not been suggested already… check your Firewall settings. You might try disabling it to see if the firewall is the issue and then fine tune it from there.