This page describes how to connect to a Windows system at the institute, from your own Linux machine, either on the laptop or wireless network, or from outside the institute. The same method also works when connecting to Linux servers that have the Remote Desktop Protocol enabled (please check with the computergroup to arrange this).

If you are connected through our institute VPN, you should be able to connect directly (so you can skip the tunnel setup). The same is true for our wired (not wireless!) laptop net.

Otherwise, a secure tunnel has to be set up using ssh. The tunnel connects a local port to a remote port on a specific machine. Once the tunnel is set up, a client program can comnnect to the local port, and the tunnel takes care of connecting that to the remote destination.

The port we want here is 3389, which is the port of the remote desktop protocol. This example logs in to ssh3.physics.leidenuniv.nl and sets up the tunnel to a remote Windows Desktop on a machine called SERVER:

ssh -L 3389:SERVER:3389 username@ssh3.physics.leidenuniv.nl

Now, you probably don't want to remember this and type it all the time, so an easy solution is to add an alias in your .profile (which contains the settings that are executed every time you open a new shell in a terminal):

alias SERVER='ssh -L 3389:SERVER:3389 username@ssh3.physics.leidenuniv.nl'

Some additional notes:

• Users should use the appropriate ssh server for their own institute
  • LION: ssh3.physics.leidenuniv.nl
  • STRW: ssh.strw.leidenuniv.nl
  • Lorentz: ssh.lorentz.leidenuniv.nl
• The machine to log in to (SERVER) can just as well be your own desktop, if you have one (and if it has been set up to run RDP)
• The SERVER could also be our Remote Desktop cluster rds.physics.leidenuniv.nl if you have access to that.
• The username@ part can be omitted if you have the same username locally on your Linux and on the ssh server.

A good rdp client for Linux is remmina (Remmina Remote Desktop Client) , it even allow you to directly setup a tunnel as described above. Alternatively you can user xfreerdp, vinagre or the Gnome Connections app.

Here we describe the setup in Remina:

Open the application and press the + icon (New connection profile) in the upper left corner (see left image; click to enlarge).

Give the profile a name and select RDP as protocol.

Enter the server name and your username. When connecting to Windows computers, provide the correct windows domain here (STERREWACHT or PHYSICS).

Optionally, set a suitable custom resolution at Resolution (Usually, the default will work just fine).

To allow the communication to go through an ssh tunnel, go to the SSH Tunnel tab. Press Enable SSH tunnel and enter your username.

Initialise the session by pressing Save and Connect

You should now see a login screen for the machine you are connecting to. Once logged in, you will see a complete desktop environment, running in a window (or fullscreen) on your local computer.