Expand All | Collapse All

Create an SSH Tunnel for Remote Desktop

We do not allow remote desktop access from outside of ECE. What you can do, and this is completely unsupported, is tunnel port 3389 on the remote end through ssh to one of the ecelinsrv systems, and then connect to the tunnel. Below are instructions for enabling a port forward using SecureCRT from OIT:

1. Create a new session to ecelinsrv[1,2,5].ece.gatech.edu
2. Open the session properties
3. Select Port Forwarding under the Connection section
4. Click Add
5. Enter a descriptive name, such as RDP to myhost
6. In the Local section, enter a port number to use, such as 33389.
7. In the Remote section, do the following:
   • Check Destination host is diiferent from the SSH server
   • Enter the hostname, such as myhost.ece-int.gatech.edu
   • Enter 3389 in the Port field
8. In the Application section, do the following:
   • Enter C:\WINDOWS\system32\mstsc.exe in the Application field
   • Enter /v localhost:33389 in the Arguments field
9. Click OK

When you open the session and log in now, it will open a remote desktop to your system.

Please remember that we do not provide any support for this and your mileage may vary.

For Mac OSX Users

1. Open the Terminal program (Applications > Tools(?) > Terminal)
2. Type:
   
   ssh -L 33389:[name of your ECE PC]:3389 -l [ECE Unix user name] ecelinsrv[1,2,5].ece.gatech.edu
   
   Where
   - [name of your ECE PC] is the name of your desktop that you use in ECE
   - [ECE Unix user name] is your ECE unix user name
   - ecelinsrv[1,2,5] pick one: ecelinsrv1, ecelinsrv2, or ecelinsrv5
3. Open the Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac (you'll need to download this from Microsoft (http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/remote-desktop/default.mspx).
4. Select New Connection and type localhost:33389 in the "Computer" box.

For Linux Users

1. Open a Terminal window (in Gnome, Applications > ).
2. type:
   
   ssh -L 33389:[name of your ECE PC]:3389 -l [ECE Unix user name] ecelinsrv[1,2,5].ece.gatech.edu
   
   Where
   - [name of your ECE PC] is the name of your desktop that you use in ECE
   - [ECE Unix user name] is your ECE unix user name
   - ecelinsrv[1,2,5] pick one: ecelinsrv1, ecelinsrv2, or ecelinsrv5
3. In a new Terminal window type:
   
   rdesktop localhost:33389
   
   (for other rdesktop options, type: man rdesktop). If rdesktop does not come with your distribution, you can get the source code from http://www.rdesktop.org.

Last revised on October 19, 2009.