Using Remote Desktop
To Connect to the AE Computers
From Home

Connecting to the AE Labs remotely is not only very ease, but also extremely convenient. There are just a couple things we need to do to prepare the connection, so lets take a look at them...

First of all, if we're off campus, we'll need the VPN client to connect to the College of Engineering network, since it's behind a firewall. The client can be downloaded at work.psu.edu/vpn and information for setting it up can be found here. If your network is blocking VPN traffic, see "Connect to a computer remotely with no VPN Client" below.

Once connected to the network here on campus, we'll need to take a quick look to find an available Remote Desktop computer. Viewing the Remote Desktop Computer availability can be done here.

Now that we have a computer picked out that we want to use, we'll connect to it by using "Remote Desktop" software. It's available for most all platforms and comes standard with Windows XP Professional. If you need to install it for other versions of Windows, you can download it here from Microsoft: RDP Client. Once installed, click "Start", "Programs", "Accessories", "Communications", then "Remote Desktop" to open.

Mac users, visit This Site for the remote desktop client for Mac OS.

With Remote Desktop open, we need to furnish a computer name. The computer name we can get from the availability web site, but we'll need to append ".coeaccess.psu.edu" to the computer name to connect. For instance, if you wish to connect to "AE8059", then you will type in the box "ae8059.coeaccess.psu.edu" and then connect. Don't forget to first connect the VPN Client to "COE-from-ISP".

It's very important that when you're finished you log off the computer. If you just "Disconnect" the computer will become locked and nobody can use it. If this happens too often others get upset.

Sometimes you need to Remote Desktop to an AE computer, but you can't connect the VPN Client to "COE"; maybe you're already connected to "pennstate" wireless, or you're on a public Internet that blocks the port used by the VPN Client. If this is the case, please read on...

Connecting to a computer remotely with no VPN Client

Step 1, download and install SSH Secure Shell Client
SSH Secure Shell Client, download from PSU

Step 2, test whether it can connect:
Open the software “Secure Shell Client”. Click the “Profiles” button and “add” a profile, name it “RDP to AE” and add it to your profiles. Test the connection by clicking the “Profiles” button again, then select “RDP to AE”. For the Host Name, put in “coesftp.ecs.psu.edu”, use your Penn State username, and leave the port and authentication method unchanged. Click “Connect” and if it’s able to connect it will ask for your PSU password. If it can’t connect you’ll receive an error that the host can’t be found, and you can disregard the rest of this page. Sorry.

Step 3, find a computer to connect to:
Computer Availability Website

Step 4, edit the SSH profile to allow Remote Desktop connections:
Edit the profile "RDP to AE", select the "Tunneling" tab, add an outgoing port. The display name is irrelevant, but the type is "TCP", the Listen Port is "9999", chech "Allow Local Connections Only", Destination Host is the computer you want to connect to remotely (ae8061.coeaccess.psu.edu, for example), and finally, the Destination Port is "3389". Click "OK" to save your settings.

Step 5, connect the SSH Client using the "RDP to AE" profile with your PSU username and password

Step 6, connect to the Remote Desktop computer:
Open up the Remote Desktop Client, and in the "Computer:" field, type "localhost:9999", then press enter. If all goes well you should be prompted to log onto an AE computer remotely.

Useful images: