The Remote Desktop service provides an easy way for off-campus users to connect to a Windows computer on campus using Microsoft's Remote Desktop Connection tool or similar third party software. Remote Desktop access is blocked from off-campus but by configuring your off-campus computer to use the UofS Remote Desktop Gateway, you can still connect to Windows computers on campus.
Support for the Remote Desktop Gateway is built-in to Microsoft's Remote Desktop Connection for Windows and several third party products (such as iTap software for MacOs, iPad/iPhone/iPad, Android, and Linux and Wyse PocketCloud for iPad/iPhone/iPod and Android). If you use Microsoft's Remote Desktop Connection for Macintosh or third party software that does not suppoort the Remote Desktop Gateway, then you will need to use the VPN in order to connect to your computer from off-campus.
In order to make remote desktop connections, you must enable remote desktop on your work desktop. To do this on Windows 7, right click on your computer -> properties -> Remote settings.
You will get a window similar to the one shown here. Make sure that "Allow Connections from computers running any version of remote desktop" is selected. If you will be connecting to this workstation from windows vista or windows 7, you may select the more secure option by selecting "Allow connections only from computers running Remote Desktop with Network Level Authentication"
If you are connecting from windows XP, right click on your computer and select properties, click on the "Remote" tab. You will get a screen similar to this one. Under "Remote Desktop", make sure you have selected "Allow users to connect remotely to this computer"
To connect using the UofS Remote Desktop Gateway, you will need the latest remote desktop client software that supports Terminal Services Gateway. In windows 7, windows 2008, and windows 2008 R2 this feature is built-in. For all other earlier Windows clients (Windows XP and Vista), you will need to download and install the Remote Desktop Connection v7.0 or later. You can download the appropriate installer for your operating system from Microsoft download link below:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/969084
On the off-campus computer you want to connect to your desktop from, start the Remote Desktop connection by clicking on Start -> All programs -> Accessories -> Remote Desktop connection
On Windows 7, you will get a screen similar to this one.
On Windows XP or Vista with Remote Desktop connection 7.0, you will get a screen similar to this one.
In the Computer field, type in your desktop's fully qualified name in the form
The options windows allows you specify your user name and to save the settings of this RDP connection to a file in case you want to copy it over or just save the settings for next use or if you want to create a different connection setting for connecting to different computers.
To setup the UofS Remote Desktop Gateway, click on the "Advanced" tab. You will get something similar to the image below. If you don't see "Connect from anywhere" settings options, you are probably running an older version of Remote Desktop connection software and you need to download the latest version to be able to use the terminal services gateway. See the pre-requisites section above.
Under the "Advanced" tab, click on "Settings..." button. You will get an image similar to the one below.
Click on 'Connect'
You will be prompted for your user name and password, provide you NSID in the form USASK\NSID or NSID@usask.ca and your password and then click on OK
Note that once you have configured the UofS Remote Desktop Gateway on your off-campus computer, Remote Desktop Connection will save this configuration and will automatically use the UofS Remote Desktop Gateway the next time you use it. That is, you only need to configure an off-campus computer once using the steps described above.
Third party software such as iTap software for MacOs, iPad/iPhone/iPad, Android, and Linux and Wyse PocketCloud for iPad/iPhone/iPod and Android can also use the UofS Remote Desktop Gateway. Although the configuration of third party software varies, the key is to configure the 'Terminal Server Gateway' server (or 'Remote Desktop Gateway' server) to 'desktopgw.usask.ca'.
If you are using Microsoft Remote Desktop Client tool for Macintosh or other third party remote desktop software that does NOT support a 'Terminal Server Gateway' (or 'Remote Desktop Gateway'), you can still connect to your on-campus Windows desktop by using the UofS VPN.
First, follow the instructions for connecting to the UofS VPN from your off-campus computer.
With a VPN connection established, you should be able to connect to your on-campus Windows desktop as if you were directly connected to the UofS network.
