RDP Port Blocked!? (Windows Terminal Server)

Many corporate networks have blocked the Remote Desktop Client-port (3389).

For most developers having their own servers at home having this port blocked can be really annying and inconvenient for too many reasons.

With the arrival of Windows 2008 Server the help is at hand. Windows 2008 allows you to connect via the "https"-port using a feature called "Terminal Services Gateway".

There are two ways to use this new feature:

• Upgrade to Windows 2008 Server which in many cases sounds easier that it actually is;
• Create a new virtual machine (don't we just love virtualization), install windows 2008 server and have that Windows instance act as a Terminal Server Gateway to your Windows 2003 server only. Its hard to find information about this scenario because it is nowhere explictly written but since this is a true Gateway I am sure this will work.

More information at technet here.

For me this will keep me bizzy for one other night ;)

PS: Setting this up last night was pretty straight forward. The only somewhat challenging part was setting up the ssl-part in the IIS Server of Windows 20008 because this requires you to setup a certificate. Since this is my home server I had to use a self-singed-certificate which adds some extra work.