Remote Desktop Protocol - Definition and Overview

Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) is a multi-channel protocol that allows a user to connect to a computer running Microsoft Terminal Services. Clients exist for most versions of Windows, and other operating systems such as Linux. The server listens by default on TCP port 3389.

Based on the ITU T.share protocol (aka T.128), the first version of RDP (called version 4.0) was introduced with Terminal Services in Windows NT 4.0 Server, Terminal Server Edition. Version 5.0 introduced with Windows 2000 Server added support for a number of features including printing to local printers and aimed to improve network bandwidth usage. Version 5.1 introduced with Windows XP included features like support for 24-bit color and sound.

See also

• Citrix MetaFrame
• Independent Computing Architecture (ICA)
• Virtual Network Computing

External links

• Remote Desktop Protocol (http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/termserv/termserv/remote_desktop_protocol.asp) - from Microsoft's Developer Network
• Understanding the Remote Desktop Protocol (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q186607) - from support.microsoft.com
• Remote Desktop Connection for Windows Server 2003 (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&familyid=a8255ffc-4b4a-40e7-a706-cde7e9b57e79) - latest version of Microsoft's free client for Windows 95 and upwards
• Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac (http://www.microsoft.com/mac/otherproducts/otherproducts.aspx?pid=remotedesktopclient) - Microsoft's free client for Mac OS X
• rdesktop (http://www.rdesktop.org/) - free open source client for Unix platforms