Storing different credential for different RDP sessions

[Brian]

I access many computers remotely via firewall ports. I use the registry
modification to change the RDP port of the host machine to something other
than 3389, then forward the appropriate port in the firewall to that host's
LAN IP. Thus, my RDP session (on my client computer) for Host Computer 1 is
something like this:

gateway.myclient.com:xxx1

Host Computer2, like this:

gateway.myclient.com:xxx2

etc.

However, I want to store different credential for different computers.
Something in XP SP3 changed the way this works, and now, if I change the user
ID or password for my Computer1 RDP session, it changes it for all computers
using "gateway.myclient.com" and seems to ignore the port # as a valid
distinguishing element of the server name.

In addition, I do have cases where I want to store two different sets of
credentials for the same server (in this case actually a terminal server, but
the issue is a client one so remains in the XP RDP realm). For example, I
have a terminal server where one client ID force-runs one app but a different
client ID force-runs a different app. Again, I have my reasons, but after a
certain Windows update on the XP client, the users cannot differentiate & are
forced to re-enter the correct user name for each session, whereas they used
to be able to save the user ID with the session.

Please do not get distracted from my question by telling me not to store
credentials. Suffice it to say that I have my reasons. That is why we have
NTFS encryption, etc, etc.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I access many computers remotely via firewall ports. I use the
registry modification to change the RDP port of the host machine to
something other than 3389, then forward the appropriate port in the
firewall to that host's LAN IP. Thus, my RDP session (on my client
computer) for Host Computer 1 is something like this:

gateway.myclient.com:xxx1

Host Computer2, like this:

gateway.myclient.com:xxx2

etc.

However, I want to store different credential for different
computers. Something in XP SP3 changed the way this works, and now,
if I change the user ID or password for my Computer1 RDP session,
it changes it for all computers using "gateway.myclient.com" and
seems to ignore the port # as a valid distinguishing element of the
server name.

In addition, I do have cases where I want to store two different
sets of credentials for the same server (in this case actually a
terminal server, but the issue is a client one so remains in the XP
RDP realm). For example, I have a terminal server where one client
ID force-runs one app but a different client ID force-runs a
different app. Again, I have my reasons, but after a certain
Windows update on the XP client, the users cannot differentiate &
are forced to re-enter the correct user name for each session,
whereas they used to be able to save the user ID with the session.

Please do not get distracted from my question by telling me not to
store credentials. Suffice it to say that I have my reasons. That
is why we have NTFS encryption, etc, etc.

Did it work in SP2?

Why are you running the pre-release of Service Pack 3 for Windows XP on a
production machine?
Are you sure that the final release of SP3 will do the same thing (if so -
how?)

Being a pre-release product - there really is not a direct support
option available. You have a few options, however:

Start here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsxp/0a5b9b10-17e3-40d9-8d3c-0077c953a761.aspx

Which can lead you:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=103822

and the forums set up specifically for the pre-release product:
http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=2010&SiteID=17

And of course:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...2b2-aab1-b969a62c68a7&DisplayLang=en#filelist

Where you can download it in different languages OR download a script that
sets a registry key on your system so you can get Windows XP SP3 Release
Candidate 2 from the Windows Update web page directly.

I do not recommend installing the pre-release (release candidate 2) on any
machine you are not willing to rebuild from scratch.

Hope that helps!

 

[Sooner Al [MVP]]

Brian,

I don't operate in your type of environment nor do I have access to XP SP3
so the best I can say is to look at these two entries in the Terminal Server
Team Blog that may or may not be of help...

http://blogs.msdn.com/ts/archive/20...entials-with-vista-rdp-clients-and-above.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/ts/archive/20...or-ts-gateway-server-and-terminal-server.aspx

Beyond that you may want to post this question to the
microsoft.public.windows.terminal_services new group.

Good luck...

--

Al Jarvi (MS-MVP Windows – Desktop User Experience)

Please post *ALL* questions and replies to the news group for the
mutual benefit of all of us...
The MS-MVP Program - http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights...
How to ask a question
http://support.microsoft.com/KB/555375

 

[Brian]

Some of these changes came along with a post-SP2, pre-SP3 Windows update - I
think with RDP client 6.0. If I recall correctly, previous to that, we could
store credentials indendently with each RDP file for each server & port.
After that, we lost the ability to store credentials by the server/port
combination, but could still store credentials unique to each server. It just
got worse with this release.

 

[Rudymill]

I'm having precisely the same problem, and since two experienced people have
not mentioned a way around it usign RDC6, then I'm going back to RDC5.

We've got most of our machines running on XPpro, but one is on Vista (big
mistake at this point in time), which came with RDC6 installed.

Will RDC 5 run on Vista?

Thanks in advance.