Connecting to the lab via remote desktop

The following is a guide to connecting to our Windows lab computers via tunneling over SSH.  For this guide, I’ll assume you’re using putty, though any client will work with some adaptation of these instructions.

1. Open putty, and on the screen fill in “{linux-lab-machine}.cs.wisc.edu” under hostname.
2. Under Connect > SSH > Tunnels, add a source port “5000” (this can be anything, this is the local port on your current computer that putty will listen to to forward traffic on), and fill in “{your-lab-machine}.cs.wisc.edu:3389” under Destination.  The other settings should be “Local” and “Auto.”
3. Click the Add button.  You should see “L5000  {your-lab-machine}.cs.wisc.edu:3389” in the list.
4. (optional, but nice) Under Connection > Data, fill in your username under Auto-login username.
5. Under Session, type a name into the Saved Sessions textbox and click the Save button.  This will save your settings, so all you need to do in the future is double-click your session in the list.
6. Select your saved session and click Open or double-click your saved session.
7. Putty will connect and prompt you for your password.  Log in.
8. (assuming you’re using Windows) Start > Run… > “mstsc”.  Under Computer, type “localhost:5000” (where 5000 is your local port you selected above).  Click Connect.
9. On the login screen, click Other User, and log in as “CS.WISC.EDU\{username}”.  The ALL-CAPS is important.  AD\ won’t work outside the department.

When you’re done with your session, mouse over the top of the screen and X out of remote desktop.  Don’t log off the machine or you’ll actually force your computer to log you off and you may lose work.  Close the putty window when you’re done.