RDP AND VPN - Complete Details

Remote Desktop (Remote Desktop) - this is the term that refers to the control mode, when one computer receives administrator rights in relation to another, remote. Communication between devices takes place in real time via the Internet or local area network.

The access level in remote administration mode is determined by specific tasks and can be changed as needed. For example:

• In one case, connecting to a working session allows complete control and interaction with a remote computer, in which it is possible to run applications on it and manipulate files;
• In another, remote access to the desktop allows you to only monitor processes, without interfering with the operation of his system.

Remote administration is a pre-installed function in almost every operating system known today, at the same time, there are a fairly large number of programs that make this process more convenient, adding new functions to the standard versions.


There are several types of remote administration:

• Computer network, which allows you to control the operation of the local office network or Internet cafe;
• A terminal is a computer that simplifies user communication with the system, for example, payment terminals of banks;
• Computer-to-computer, most often used in everyday life, but easily solving serious management tasks;
• Network – network, an excellent tool for the need for interaction between remote corporate networks.

It is worth noting the possibility of cross-remote administration between different operating systems.

Basically, this mode is used by network administrators to quickly identify and fix software or hardware failures and monitor systems.

On the other hand, the development of "cloud" technologies that facilitate the centralized storage of huge amounts of information in remote networks and servers, perfectly matches the basic principles of the regime.

The recent trend has been the development and implementation of remote administration based on wireless systems. They are inferior in functionality to the usual physical networks, but they do a good job of monitoring, statistics, and managing simple network processes.

Important! Remote access is quite a popular technology for cybercriminals for certain reasons. You should carefully approach the organization of this connection.


Many users, at least once interested in organizing a secure communication channel between computers on the Internet, have come across such abbreviations as RDP and VPN . Most often, in various forums devoted to network security, it is advised to connect to remote computers or servers via RDP via VPN . For an uninitiated person, such advice may seem at first glance to be some set of obscure words that only a computer network specialist can understand. However, everything is not as complicated as it might seem at first glance, which we will demonstrate in this article.


To begin with, let's figure out in what situations an ordinary user who has nothing to do with network administration may need to establish a secure connection to remote devices. Initially, this opportunity was used for corporate purposes to provide remote access for employees to the company's servers so that they could work with corporate data while being outside the office, for example, on a business trip or on a trip. However, subsequently, technologies for secure access to remote devices began to be used by ordinary ordinary users to organize anonymous and secure access to web resources.


How it works? In fact, the organization of anonymous access to the Internet with traffic encryption and the substitution of an IPaddress is divided into 3 stages. First, the user needs to use SOCKS proxies to spoof the IP address so that the end node cannot determine that the proxy server is being used. Secondly, it is necessary to organize a secure communication channel with a rented server to connect to SOCKS- proxy. Connecting to this remote server is done using RDP , or using RDP over VPN, which is the most secure, but also the most difficult option to implement. A simplified secure communication channel can be displayed as follows.




Let's finally deal with incomprehensible abbreviations. RDP is short for Remote Desktop Protocol , that is, Remote Desktop Protocol . This protocol was developed by Microsoft to organize user access to remote servers and computers running the Windowsoperating system . Thanks to this protocol, users can remotely connect to computers and manage it as if they were working directly on it. After connecting to RDP - the user’s client displays the desktop of a remote computer, which you can work with in the usual way - using the mouse and keyboard. All that is required of the user is to allow RDP connections on the remote computer and connect to it using the RDP client program . At the same time, all this is implemented using standard Microsoft Windows tools , and the user does not need to install additional software tools.


Many believe that  RDP is a security hole, but this is far from the case. Today, RDP is not only a fairly secure protocol, but also allows you to hide the fact of tunneling, that is, for SOCKS- proxy, the user looks like he is working directly from a rented server, and for the final website, directly from SOCKS- proxy.


This method of organizing remote access is the simplest and does not require any special knowledge from the user. As a rule, when renting a remote Windows server, access to it is via RDP , so the user does not need to configure anything. All he needs to do, in this case, is to run the RDP client built into Windows on his computer and enter the server IP address, login and password, issued by the server lessor. Thus, the organization of a secure and anonymous channel in this way requires the user to perform three simple steps:


1)       It is necessary to rent a remote Windows server from any service provider you like


2)       After paying the server rental, the service provider sends the user the data necessary for remote server management - server IP address, username and password


3) The user needs to run an RDP client on his computer or mobile device and enter the IP address, username and password from the previous paragraph.


After completing these three steps, the user’s RDP client displays the desktop of the remote server, which the user can control with the mouse and keyboard from his device.


Next, the user can only configure SOCKS- proxy on a remote server.


Now we will deal with a more complex option for organizing a secure channel - VPN. VPN Abbreviation for English Virtual Private Network - Virtual Private Network. In fact, VPN is the organization of a logical network, that is, a kind of local network on top of another network, in our case, the Internet. To protect the data transmitted in this case from third parties, reliable and modern encryption methods are used, allowing users not to worry about data security.

ADVANTAGES

What is the advantage of VPN over RDP? VPN can be configured to work on almost any port, unlike RDP, which standardly uses port 3389. If you want to organize anonymous access from your workstation, you may encounter a ban on the use of this port for data transfer. Often, corporate network administrators close most ports, so connecting via an RDP to a remote server using a standard  RDP client fails. Theoretically, the RDP port can be changed by editing the corresponding parameter in the Windows registry, however, in this case, RDP-connection will lose versatility, which may adversely affect the user experience. In this case, it is more practical to use a VPN connection, when configuring which you can specify any open port.