Windows Server 2012 r2 Remote Desktop Setup


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I have a Windows Server 2008 R2 with Remote Desktop Installed.  I have backup software installed on the 2008 server, NovaBackup.  I RD from a workstation across town, login with administrator, get the server desktop, and can backup from the 2008 server to my workstation drive (tsclient) with no problem.

 

I have a Windows Server 2012 R2 server at a different location and want to do the same thing.  I just started looking at using RD on the 2012 server and I am confused as hell how to set it up simply to do what I'm doing now with the 2008 server.

 

Just lead me in the right direction!  HELP!

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It's pretty much the same.. Just make sure it's open on the firewall built into Windows..

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Also, are you using a VPN to get into the servers or is port 3389 open on your internet firewall? If 3389 is open, that's really realllly bad..

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I ran the RD wizard and got RD Connection Broker, RD Session Host, and RD Web Access roles installed.  Are ALL these necessary?  I just want to simply remote in to the DESKTOP and run a backup program.

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I ran the RD wizard and got RD Connection Broker, RD Session Host, and RD Web Access roles installed.  Are ALL these necessary?  I just want to simply remote in to the DESKTOP and run a backup program.

No they are not, You just need remote desktop enabled on the server as above, an admin account with a password and the port open in the firewall
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Should I uninstall RD that I installed through the wizard and then go back and go back and enable remote desktop on the server, I have an admin account and password and open port 3391 on the server/firewall?

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Enable Remote Access,

Open up Windows Filewall Rules

Remote Desktop User Mode Rule,

Advance Tab, Tick Public (the other two should be ticked).

 

I had this issue and could not remote in untill i done this.

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Uninstall all of the remote services in the server manager.  In the system properties (in control panel) you simply have to allow remote connections to this computer, just like in previous versions of windows.  You also have to make sure that rdp is enabled in the firewall or simply turn the windows firewall off.

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Uninstall all of the remote services in the server manager.  In the system properties (in control panel) you simply have to allow remote connections to this computer, just like in previous versions of windows.  You also have to make sure that rdp is enabled in the firewall or simply turn the windows firewall off.

 

That's a pretty horrendous practice for any implementation.

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for testing, in most cases, is faster.  Easy to determine culprit of connectivity issues.  Can see what ports are being attached to and opening those ports when vendor documentation is lax or non existent.  There are many reasons to turn off the firewall.  Not always is it simple to allow a port, sometimes another port is required and blocked.  I can't begin to tell you how many times the firewall blocked communications even though the rule stated to allow.

 

Going way off topic here...in what world would having a software firewall on a secure, trusted network be bad practice? 

 

Lets take your home for instance,  you don't run a software firewall on your computer.  another computer gets infected on your network, do you know what the chances of your computer getting infected?  Lets say you have antivirus/antimalware software installed on your computers...same scenario.  On a software firewall, generally you allow all communications on your network or subnet range to communicate to your computers blindly...if you don't, usually you are a bit more knowledgeable than the average user. 

 

If this person is having trouble allowing access, perhaps instead of showing them how to allow it in the firewall (which someone already did) having him disabling it and trying again will net the results that the person wants.  You keep trying things until it works, figure out why it didn't work in the first place, then fix the holes you made.  When you drill a hole to run wire or pipe through, do you leave the hole as is, or do you fill it?  That is the difference between a professional and a DIY, the professional will fill it, the DIY will call it a day and let air, rodents or whatever else through. 

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I got it working.  Thank you for all the help.  Now another question.  My objective is to fire up backup software and backup to the hard drive on the workstation I did the remote desktop from.  It is working.  When remote desktop connects to the server it creates a TSCLIENT which is the hard drive on the workstation I'm backing up to (selected in OPTIONS - OTHER RESOURCES).  When I start the backup software it wants a backup to location, I open up network and select TSCLIENT, which allows me to select the folder to backup to on the workstation.  The problem is, it's taking FOREVER to backup just a 1.5 GB file.  Any suggestions to speed it up?

 

Thanks again!

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try a direct smb share vs the share that it creates through the rdp session, see if that is any faster.  

 

opening \\computername\share would be using a smb share, if on a domain \\computername\c$ is administratively shared by default.

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I got it working.  Thank you for all the help.  Now another question.  My objective is to fire up backup software and backup to the hard drive on the workstation I did the remote desktop from.  It is working.  When remote desktop connects to the server it creates a TSCLIENT which is the hard drive on the workstation I'm backing up to (selected in OPTIONS - OTHER RESOURCES).  When I start the backup software it wants a backup to location, I open up network and select TSCLIENT, which allows me to select the folder to backup to on the workstation.  The problem is, it's taking FOREVER to backup just a 1.5 GB file.  Any suggestions to speed it up?

 

Thanks again!

 

Hi, which step got it working for you? I am trying to do the exact same thing and failing.

 

I'm also slightly confused on the setting on the remote PC because the server is attached to a route with an internal IP.. I guess in Microsoft Remote Desktop app i would set the server IP as the internal IP and the gateway as my external IP?

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I am lost as to where you are at and your confusion.

The route has nothing to do with the remote desktop client. Routes are handled by your gateway.

 

In the remote desktop app, you either put the hostname you want to connect to or the ip of the host you want to connect to.  There is no place for internal and external addresses. 

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How fast is copying a file from the server's Explorer to \\tsclient\c$\users\yourusername ?

 

What if you create a share on your workstation and map that on your server - faster?

 

AFIAK \\tsclient is provided via a channel ion the RDP protocol and cannot be compared with standard SMB networking.  It shouldn't be relied on in an app's architecture (I'm speaking from a more orientated Citrix PoV, but it's broadly similar).

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I am lost as to where you are at and your confusion.

The route has nothing to do with the remote desktop client. Routes are handled by your gateway.

 

In the remote desktop app, you either put the hostname you want to connect to or the ip of the host you want to connect to.  There is no place for internal and external addresses. 

 

Yes there is room for a 'gateway' in the remote desktop app.. I'm not really sure what it's used for as I have only ever used the app to remote into machines on my network, therefore the gateway is ignored.. i'd normally just put the hostname in the PC Name box.

 

We have just purchased a new finance system and the company are doing an off-site installation... they needs to be able to connect to my server via their location so obviously they'll need my external IP... but how does the gateway or whatever know to route the connection to the correct server they are installing in? I have never done it before so not 100% sure, i just assumed the 'gateway' in the RDP app would be my external IP, and the PC Name be the server name/IP... either way, it hasn't worked.

 

Hope that makes sense.

 

I was thinking about asking them to use team viewer or something if I couldn't get it working.

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You don't use the RD gateway server option unless you have a RD gateway.  If you don't know if you have a RD gateway or not, you don't.  It requires a bit of configuration so you would for sure know that you have a RD gateway server or not.  Leave that option to automatically detect...again, not something you should be playing with and should be left as not known.  Havent had a need to build a rd/ts gateway server since 2008, which is why I forgot about that option.  to remote desktop into a computer leave everything in the client default and pop in the ip or host name of the computer when the rdp connection window comes up.  there is no other configuration you need to do on the client.

 

this is a helpful tool when managing multiple servers, but for individual servers opening up a rdp session is relatively easy and requires no configuration.

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here are the two places you need to touch on the server (if you have a security suite on the server you may have to modify that as well to allow remote desktop and/or tcp port 3389 to communicate).  No other configuration changes needed to be made to the client or to the server for rdp to function.

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post-118098-0-25215000-1422556702.jpg

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  • 5 months later...

File transfer might go faster if you connected with a VPN. File transfer over the RDP protocol is slow.

I have used Box and webdev to map the box account to a drive.  Not too hard to setup. Easy backup to cloud. 

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