Direct Connections with Remote Desktop close on July 1st

Do you use Remote Desktop to connect to your office computer from home or while on the go? If you want to continue doing that after July 1st, you need to create a new shortcut for the connection. You can get started using the new solution from June 15th.

What happens?

From June 15th you must go through a security gateway when connecting to your office computer with Remote Desktop. The first time you connect through the security gateway, you create a connection file you'll later use as a shortcut. The only thing you need to make the connection file, is the name of the office computer. If you do not know the computer name, you can get it from your local IT staff.

Thus, the first time you use Remote Desktop after June 15, you create a connection file. Next time, and all other times, connect to your computer by double clicking the connection file, which is now a shortcut to Remote Desktop connection to the office computer.

If you are not already using Remote Desktop, you need local IT to prepare your computer before you can make the first connection.

How?

When, on June 15th or later, you wish to use a Remote Desktop Connection to your office computer, do the following:

  1. If you have not used Remote Desktop before, contact your local IT so they can prepare your computer.
  2. Make sure you have the name of your office computer. Do not have the name, contact your local IT staff.
  3. When you sit at the computer you are connecting from (home or laptop), go to the University of Oslo's IT services page for Remote Desktop, and then follow the instructions for your platform, Windows, OS X or Linux.

What you should do is essentially to provide the machine name and own username on a web page to create a connection file. The connection file is downloaded to your computer. Choose to store the file on your desktop or on another location where you can easily access it. Double-click the connection file to connect to the office computer. On subsequent occasions, just double-click the connection file to connect to your office computer.

Why?

Every day the UiO network is the object of thousands of attacks. Many of the attacks are directed at the network input for remote connections, that is where Remote Desktop connections from home computers to office computers come through. By setting up a security gateway, the connections are controlled in a different way, so that real connections from home computers to office machines come through without delay, while unauthorized connections are stopped effectively.

Published June 22, 2015 10:49 AM - Last modified Oct. 10, 2019 3:43 PM