Remote desktop to you home computer from a public location

bogdan5bogdan5 Member Posts: 82 ■■□□□□□□□□
How safe would it be to connect to my home computer let's say from a library or a coffee shop? I'm having a hard time to concentrate at home and I would like to get out and just study from a different location. I have VMware set up on my desktop(XP) and I would be connecting from Vista.

Thanks,
Going for:N+, MCSA/MCSE.

Comments

  • undomielundomiel Member Posts: 2,818
    Make sure you're working on a secure connection. I ssh home from work all of the time and tunnel vnc through that. Just make sure you aren't exposing your rdp or vnc to the world.
    Jumping on the IT blogging band wagon -- http://www.jefferyland.com/
  • Daniel333Daniel333 Member Posts: 2,077 ■■■■■■□□□□
    I do it all the time with Hamachi.
    -Daniel
  • bogdan5bogdan5 Member Posts: 82 ■■□□□□□□□□
    Any good websites you guys can suggest that I can look at?
    Going for:N+, MCSA/MCSE.
  • Daniel333Daniel333 Member Posts: 2,077 ■■■■■■□□□□
  • bogdan5bogdan5 Member Posts: 82 ■■□□□□□□□□
    Nice, I'm have to wait till I get home. Logmein.com is blocked at my work.
    Going for:N+, MCSA/MCSE.
  • undomielundomiel Member Posts: 2,818
    This gives a good overview for setting up ssh tunneling under windows:
    http://members.shaw.ca/nicholas.fong/vnc/
    Jumping on the IT blogging band wagon -- http://www.jefferyland.com/
  • royalroyal Member Posts: 3,352 ■■■■□□□□□□
    Daniel333 wrote:

    I use Logmein as well and love it.
    “For success, attitude is equally as important as ability.” - Harry F. Banks
  • HeroPsychoHeroPsycho Inactive Imported Users Posts: 1,940
    Exposing RDP to the world is not that bad. From a DoS vulnerability perspective, the last known vulnerability for that was years ago; honestly, tunneling RDP through SSH might leave you more vulnerable for DoS's as SSH vulnerabilities are found actually more often. RDP is encrypted, but the main weakness of RDP is unless you configure the host to use a cert, which I believe is only supported in server versions of Windows, you don't actually know what you're connecting to, and is therefore susceptible to man in the middle attacks.

    I do have it "open to the world" via Windows Home Server. However, the MITM vulnerability is effectively solved since accessing WHS is an SSL connection, so the chances of MITM when initiating what is effectively Remote Desktop for Workgroups is pretty small small.
    Good luck to all!
  • RTmarcRTmarc Member Posts: 1,082 ■■■□□□□□□□
    HeroPsycho wrote:
    Exposing RDP to the world is not that bad. From a DoS vulnerability perspective, the last known vulnerability for that was years ago; honestly, tunneling RDP through SSH might leave you more vulnerable for DoS's as SSH vulnerabilities are found actually more often. RDP is encrypted, but the main weakness of RDP is unless you configure the host to use a cert, which I believe is only supported in server versions of Windows, you don't actually know what you're connecting to, and is therefore susceptible to man in the middle attacks.

    I do have it "open to the world" via Windows Home Server. However, the MITM vulnerability is effectively solved since accessing WHS is an SSL connection, so the chances of MITM when initiating what is effectively Remote Desktop for Workgroups is pretty small small.
    I'm in a similar situation. I RDP in from home and work.
  • bogdan5bogdan5 Member Posts: 82 ■■□□□□□□□□
    I'm going to use www.logmein.com for now and see how I like it.

    Thanks guys for all your input.
    Going for:N+, MCSA/MCSE.
  • dynamikdynamik Banned Posts: 12,312 ■■■■■■■■■□
    I believe there was some flaw in the XP/2003 version of RDP, but I think it's been remedied in Vista/2008. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? I don't feel like doing any research tonight ;)

    Also, are you using your computer over wifi or a public computer? I'd be much more concerned if I was on their equipment. All the encryption in the world won't do you a bit of good if they're using a software or hardware (connects between the keyboard and PC) key logger.

    Lots of other good suggestions. Also, you can change your RDP port in the registry. I do this for all my machines. It won't stop someone determined to find it, but it will allow you to miss people scanning IPs for that port.
  • unclejohnnyunclejohnny Member Posts: 82 ■■□□□□□□□□
    I've been using logmein for about a year, and I love it. I set it up on my mother's computer so I can log in from my house to fix silly things she messes up on her PC. I log into my home computer all the time from work.
    "We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of the dreams." Willy Wonka
  • bogdan5bogdan5 Member Posts: 82 ■■□□□□□□□□
    I'll be using my laptop with vista on it. It's a fresh reinstall since dell or myself could not figure out why out of no where I didn't have sound.
    Going for:N+, MCSA/MCSE.
  • SieSie Member Posts: 1,195
    I used Log me in before myself with no problems, see what you think.

    Im thinking of putting an iLo card in server at home so it can stay off until I need it and boot it up to increase security, and to be a geek icon_lol.gif
    Foolproof systems don't take into account the ingenuity of fools
  • johnclickjohnclick Registered Users Posts: 1 ■□□□□□□□□□
    bogdan5 — I relate to your concern: In my business, I deal with very sensitive information, so after some research, I've gone with RHUB's very secure service.
  • BokehBokeh Member Posts: 1,636 ■■■■■■■□□□
    Again? Another reply to a five yr old post?
  • Snow.brosSnow.bros Member Posts: 832 ■■■■□□□□□□
  • CrikeyCrikey Member Posts: 59 ■■□□□□□□□□
    1.21 Gigawatts!
  • petedudepetedude Member Posts: 1,510
    I'm actually glad this topic resurfaced again. I've been toying with various access methods for my home resources, but the RDP discussion here has me leaning that direction.
    Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.
    --Will Rogers
  • krjaykrjay Member Posts: 290
    People will complain if you create a topic that's been discussed before, and mock you when you necro an old thread.. Just can't win, can you johnclick?
    2014 Certification Goals: 70-410 [ ] CCNA:S [ ] Linux+ [ ]
  • sratakhinsratakhin Member Posts: 818
    Petedude, try RD Gateway. It's kind of pain to set up to it works much better than anything else I tried. I can now RDP to my work computer and different servers from anywhere and all traffic is encrypted with HTTPS.
  • N2ITN2IT Inactive Imported Users Posts: 7,483 ■■■■■■■■■■
    sratakhin - do you know of any good sites to explain this a little bit more?
  • sratakhinsratakhin Member Posts: 818
    Technet ;)
    Step 2: Installing RD Gateway

    The set up is a little different in Server 2012 but it follows the same steps.
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