Is it safe to have Remote desktop web connection

[Avinash Kaur]

Hello Friends,

I'm planning to have remote desktop web connection on my pc. But before that i would like to know that whether it is safe to have remote desktop web connection? What are your suggestion on this issue? Is there any kind of risk involve in it related to hacking issue is concern? Kindly suggest me your views on the above issue. Any kind of information on the baove issue would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[Milton.J]

The Remote Desktop Web Connection is a high-encryption, Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) 5.0 client and uses RSA Security's RC4 cipher with a key strength of 40-, 56-, or 128-bit, as determined by the computer to which it is connecting. The Remote Desktop Web Connection uses the well-known RDP TCP port (3389) to communicate to the host. Unlike some other display protocols, which send data over the network using clear text or with an easily decodable "scrambling" algorithm, Remote Desktop Web Connection's built-in encryption makes it safe to use over any network—including the Internet—as the protocol cannot be easily sniffed to discover passwords and other sensitive data.

[Spyrus]

Just having ntfs itself doesn't make it more secure...you have to use the ntfs features like file encryption, etc. Anyway, there are probably security vulnerabilities. Will give the hackers some time. You know the Windows XP built-in administrator account that can only be accessed in safe mode? Its default password is blank, and so it's oftentimes a target for attack. Also net shares, etc although these aren't necessarily associated with remote desktop.

Do you know if remote desktop uses an encrypted connection? I use netmeeting to connect from home it requires that i encrypt the connection if i want to access my computer remotely.

[Snake08]

Well not really, 80 is the port web servers use, not web clients. When you browse a website with IE it doesn't use port 80 for outgoing traffic. You could get a program called TCPView to see what port it's using, I would guess its random between a set.

[Zachary]

Remote Desktop Web Connection is an optional World Wide Web Service component of Internet Information Services, which is included by default in Windows XP Professional, Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003. Just like IIS, Remote Desktop Web Connection is not installed by default on Windows XP/2003, but must be installed using Add or Remove Programs.