Change RDP listening port in Windows Vista

Posted on December 14, 2008 at 5:12 am

In an earlier post, I wrote about how to setup Remote Desktop on a Windows XP computer. In that article, I talked about several things that you must do in order to activate Remote Desktop, including setting an user account password, unblocking the remote desktop port in the XP firewall, and enabling remote connections in the System Properties tab.

Finally, if you are connecting to a computer from outside the local network, you have to forward the default RDP listening port (3389) to the computer you want to connect. That was all explain in the previous article I mentioned.

In order to change the RDP listening port in Vista, open your registry editor (Start and type regedit in the search box) and navigate to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > System > CurrentControlSet >Control > TerminalServer > WinStations > RDP-Tcp

Double-click on it and choose Decimal. Then in Value Data, type in the port number you want to use.

Click OK and then close the registry editor. Restart the computer and your computer will now be listening for incoming remote connections on the new port. Most people have to change the RDP port because they are trying to connect to multiple computers on the same network, however, it’s probably a good idea even if you are connecting to one computer for security reasons.

Hackers know the default port is 3389, so they launch bots trying to hack into computers might have Remote Desktop enabled with a weak password. In order to connect to a computer with a different listening port, just add a colon and the port number after the computer name or IP address.

So hopefully with these two articles, you have been able to successfully implement a remote desktop connection across your network or across the Internet. If not, post a question here and I’ll try to help! Enjoy!

» Filed Under Computer Tips

Comments

3 Responses to “Change RDP listening port in Windows Vista”

Kevin said on : December 14th, 2008 at 11:37 am

Super idea. One way to make the port easier to remember is using the last four digits of a phone number (greater than 1024) or a four- or five-digit street address.

akishore said on : December 14th, 2008 at 2:44 pm

Kevin, that’s a great idea! I’ve been doing something similar myself, but hadn’t really thought about it. Thanks for the advice.

Map a TCP-UDP port from one PC to another using Port Mapper Says:

[...] you want to remotely access multiple computers on a single network using remote desktop, you have change the RDP listening port from the default 3389. Read my post here on how to setup remote [...]
April 9th, 2009 at 5:51 am