Remote desktop port on Vista
Hi everyone,I've been trying without any luck to change my remote desktop port from the default of 3389 to port 21 so that I can access it from work. I am not running anything esle on port 21, and i've done the reg hack that is stated in KB article 306759, rebooted a number of times and also ensured that port 21 TCP is allowed through the firewall, and no matter what I do, I can not connect.I've tried 'telnet localhost 21' and nothing happens, i've also tried connecting from other computers inside my LAN and no luck at all.Can anyone suggest if there's anything i'm possibly missing, or is there any updated article for Vista that tells you how to change the listening port for RDP?ThanksBonez56
February 10th, 2007 6:33am

I'm sure that you did port map port 21 to your statically assigned ip address of the computer you want to remote and have changed the default 3389 to 21 like you stated above. Let me explain a little, you cannot use RDP to localhost, it's a loopback and it's not going to work. So, in order for it to work correctly you need to type in the RDP software your ip address along with port 21 like this xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:21 and it'll work fine. By default RDP uses 3389 but you've changed it so you have to specify the port. Sorry if I made you sound inferior, I did not mean so. Why don't you just open port 3389 to your computer? A lot easier I think.
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February 20th, 2007 5:47pm

Hi alpha2k7,Thanks for the response. Yes i've made the registry change from 3389 to 21, and i've also ensured there is no firewall blocking it. My IP address does not use NAT as it's a completely public address that's assigned to the NIC on my Vista PC. The change to port 21 was due to my work's firewall that blocks 3389... so the change was needed in order to bypass that. I've since decided it's something to do with their firewall that's blocking me on port 21... however other people at work who have XP on their home PC's are able to use RDP on port 21, so it must be something to do with the different protocol between XP and Vista. I've tried connecting from places other than work and it is fine on port 21, so it has to be something to do with the companies firewall :) Thanks for the reply. Bonez
February 21st, 2007 12:43am

Hi, i have a kind of similiar problem,i changed the port in the registry, the computer is running on windows vista, but i still can connect on port 3389 and not on 3390 like i want. (i need to change because i have many computers i need to control remotely via a router redirection, it is easyer to change ports...)do i need to do something else than change the registry ?thank you for your help,Xavier SAND.
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July 25th, 2007 12:45pm

The RDP 6 client (which is the default Vista client) can't use TCP Port 3390. Use a higher number port like 3391 or up. A better solution may be to run Remote Desktop through a VPN or Secure Shell (SSH) tunnel. That provides better security by only exposing one hole in your firewall/router and you can use strong authentication by using certs or private/public key pairs. Personally, and speaking as strictly a home user, I only allow access to my home LAN via a SSH tunnel protected by a private/public key pair with a strong password. I run RDP though the SSH tunnel to access all of my desktops.
July 25th, 2007 2:10pm

make sure when you input the address on the client side to utilize colons between address and port mail.pwns.com:3399
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November 2nd, 2007 1:43am

I think the problem here is that you're using port 21. Many companies will block ftp at the firewall as well, and only allow it within the network, if at all.
November 6th, 2007 3:15pm

HeyThe remote desktop client in windows vista / 7 is somewhat broken when you try to use RDP protocol over port 21. I've noticed this too. A simple work around is to remove the newer version and copy the mstsc.exe and 3 related files from a windows XP machine to the vista / 7 machine. So far I can't make the newer client work, it connected, then says connection lost and then reconnects, its quite annoying.
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August 28th, 2009 9:11am

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