Windows Server® 2008 Terminal Services Resource Kit

Enabling Remote Access Using TS Gateway

Prior to Windows Server 2008, administrators had two choices to provide access to terminal services using the tools in the box:

• Enabling VPN support.

• Exposing the terminal sever to the world by opening port 3389 to listen for incoming RDP connections. (In a variation, some administrators configured RDP to listen on a different port so that the terminal server would at least not be listening on a known port. This wasn’t much security against attacks and required administrators to edit the RDP files to point to the correct port.)

Both approaches have their downsides. Virtual private networks (VPNs) give remote users the same connectivity outside the network as they have inside, which isn’t necessarily appropriate ...