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. This documentation is for LION based desktops.

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. 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:

ssh -L 3389:<your desktop name>:3389 username@ssh3.physics.leidenuniv.nl

Alternatively you can user ssh.strw.leidenuniv.nl for Observatory environment:

ssh -L 3389:<your desktop name>:3389 username@ssh.strw.leidenuniv.nl

Now, you probaly 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 <your desktop name>='ssh -L 3389:<your desktop name>:3389 username@ssh3.physics.leidenuniv.nl'

or alternatively:

alias <your desktop name>='ssh -L 3389:<your desktop name>:3389 username@ssh.strw.leidenuniv.nl'

Some additional notes:

• Users should use the appropriate ssh server for their own institute (here LION users ssh3.physics.leidenuniv.nl and STRW users ssh.strw.leidenuniv.nl)
• The Windows machine to log in to can just as well be your own Windows desktop, if you have one
• The username@ part can be omitted if you have the same username locally on your Linux and on the ssh server.

Note that where ever is written <your desktop name> this might be replaces with our Remote Windows Desktop Server pool: remote.strw.leidenuniv.nl or remote.physics.leidenuniv.nl

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

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

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 and enter your password.

Now you should see the familiar Windows log in screen and you can go about your business.