What do I need to remotely control a computer using rdesktop?

I need to be able to work from home (Ubuntu 11.04) on a computer at work (Windows XP), so I thought I could simply use rdesktop and enter the proper credentials, but it seems it's a little more complicated than I thought. Hence the following questions:

What does the "host" computer need? What will the command line call to rdesktop look like? How can I make this secure (using ssh?) ? Where can I find troubleshooting information about this procedure?

I initially assumed this would be easy as cake but I've been having trouble and I can't seem to find any good tutorial about how to do this..

My attempt:

$ rdesktop hostIPAddress
ERROR: 71.161.102.55: unable to connect

Shawn

Posted 2011-08-24T01:03:56.827

Reputation: 1 219

For simplicity's sake, I'd suggest Teamviewer. RDP is very finicky. Also, you may want to ask your friendly IT guy about any security clearances you may need, because in the end we can't say how to secure your system against you being fired for security code violation. – digitxp – 2011-08-24T01:07:31.877

Definitely contact the IT people, because unless this is a dirt simple network configuration, you won't get any further without them. – Joe Internet – 2011-08-24T02:50:51.603

@digitxp : Don't worry my superiors are fully informed about everything I do :) (at)Joe Internet : I'm the IT person for now.. – Shawn – 2011-08-24T15:30:32.463

@digitxp : Teamviewer is working very well for me, thanks! – Shawn – 2011-08-27T04:29:50.313

Answers

As mentioned in the comments (and posted here for the sake of semantics), TeamViewer is a good solution that has very little overhead.

digitxp

Posted 2011-08-24T01:03:56.827

Reputation: 13 502

The host computer needs to be XP pro - NOT home (as yours seems to be Pro, it shouldn't be an issue. I have no idea about MCE). With 7 and vista its pro or better.

Then you you need to enable RDP on the server as below

1) “Start”-> right click on “My Computer”-> “Properties

2) Click the Remote tab

3) Check “Allow users to connect remotely to this computer”

You also need to explicitly allow rdp use for a specific account if its not an admin account with select remote users.

Unlike VNC, RDP is encrypted in some form, end to end so tunneling it over SSH may not be necessary.

Not familiar with the client side, unfortunately, but something tells me a username and password may be needed at some point

Journeyman Geek

Posted 2011-08-24T01:03:56.827

Reputation: 119 122

When you say "explicitly allow rdp use for a specific account", you mean by pressing "Select Remote Users..."? If so, I tried it with rdesktop -u username -p - IP. I get a prompt to enter the password, then I get the same error as before.. – Shawn – 2011-08-24T04:31:45.337

yup. Just to cover the stuff i know that needs to be done. I'd give it a shot with another windows box and a native RDP client, so we could narrow it down to to the client or the server... – Journeyman Geek – 2011-08-24T05:44:42.127

If you are looking for a nice GUI app for Ubuntu that includes support for RDP (and VNC, SSH and others), try installing remmina http://remmina.sourceforge.net/

– Linker3000 – 2011-08-24T13:04:22.493

@Journeyman Geek : I tried with another windows machine and got the same result, but I noticed it shares the same IP address as the other machine I was trying to access.. I guess I would need a way of telling rdesktop which computer I am trying to reach at that IP address... Any ideas? – Shawn – 2011-08-24T15:39:28.383

two computers with the same ip address? that in itself is an issue. If the individual computers are behind a nat, port forwarding would be required. – Journeyman Geek – 2011-08-24T16:33:51.417

Do you have any links for me concerning this port forwarding? – Shawn – 2011-08-24T16:56:15.930

Also it may be worth noting that I had no problem connecting to both these computers (at once if I wanted) using logmein (logmein.com). Unfortunately, the trial version has expired and I don't have the budget to buy the full version (300$/year) – Shawn – 2011-08-24T16:58:09.407

it would depend on your network - you'd need to ask your sysadmin to forward the ports (port 3389) to your system. logmein uses a proxy of some sort to handle connections, so you can connect even if you're behind a nat. Alternately you'd need to set up a VPN of some flavour, then use the IP inside your nat to connect. At this point, i'd confirm that the issue is port forwarding by trying to connect to the computer form within the office, using the ip address inside your lan, to confirm everything is working right as well. – Journeyman Geek – 2011-08-24T16:59:53.790

I'm really not comfortable with ports and lans and nats and all that, so I'll try using Remmina or Teamviewer as suggested by Linker3000 and digitxp and if these don't work, I'll go ahead and try your suggestion. That is, unless you think I'll just run into the same issues with these softwares? – Shawn – 2011-08-24T18:12:48.993