Is there a way to use a remote desktop connection to access the remote computers files via a share?

Question

Is there a way to connect to a remote Windows server and its files via RDP, but not graphically?

I could use the connection to transfer files via the \\TSCLIENT networking mapping or by actually dragging and dropping files. However, I'd like to know if it's possible to do something similar to an SCP connection or being able to map the remote connection's files to the local machine.

Some difficulties/parameters of the situation:

• I have administrator access.
• There is no VPN access.
• I am not on the same network and file sharing ports such as 139 and 445 are blocked.
• I am trying to do this without connecting via the graphical RDP client (although if was required it would be OK).
• I cannot install additional services since I do not administer the network and ports are closed.

Answer 1

You can try installing Hamachi. It is a SSLVPN, and it should bypass the router configuration as it uses the traditional SSL port (443). Then you can use the generic Windows file sharing over that.

At my old workplace I used this all the time. I would remote my machine at home and surf the web from there.

Answer 2

This might not be an answer to your question, but you might try the administrative shares.

You say you have access to RDP and that you have administrative privileges, then this might work:

\\servername\c$ for accessing the C: drive.

\\{IP}\c$ in case the previous doesn't work.

Answer 3

Without administrator access to install some other services, e.g. VPN, this seems highly unlikely as RDP does not offer this sort of capability.

Answer 4

If you have administrator access you can access the drive directly if you have a VPN connection or are on the same network. \\servername\sharename and then copy or do whatever.

Answer 5

If you can get RDP access to a machine then you should be able to map a drive across the RDP connection.

You can do this in either direction. When you open the MSTSC up, click Options → Local Resources → More and tick "Local Drives" then the drives on your local PC should show up in the drive listing on the server.

You can use the \\tsclient\drive_letter, for example. \\tsclient\d to access your local drives from the remote machine. I've had to do this in the past when connecting to a server that was behind a firewall that didn't allow any of the normal Windows file transfer methods through.

Alternatively the normal Windows way to get a secure connection to a machine on a remote network would be a VPN connection, once you've got that you can map a drive as normal and use any of the normal command line tools.

Answer 6

LogMeIn Pro has an option to access your pc both graphically and file transfers through your browser.

There is a free option, but I believe that only allows access to the RDP connection and not the file transfer. Subscription is USD 70 a year per PC. It works great. I use only the free option since I have no need to access the files, but this is a comparison of the free vs. pro options.

I know that this is a paid option, but it's also the easiest and can generally be done even if you don't have administrator access (but not always).

Answer 7

As others have suggested, you can set up a Windows file share.

Alternatively, you could set up an SSH server on the remote machine. One such server: http://sshwindows.sourceforge.net/

Answer 8

You should use Terminal Server for this task.

Also try:

mstsc /v:SERVERNAME /console