How to change RDP Port to a Custom Port number
Follow these steps and you will be able to login with a different port number.
1. Change registry at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TerminalServer\WinStations\RDP-Tcp\PortNumber from 3389 to your port number
2. Allow your port number within Windows 2008 Firewall (and specify scope of IP addresses that can access the server via RDP - this is optional but good security practice).
3. Restart the RDP service or reboot the server
See The Images for a better Experience...
Open RegEdit from the start search Menu.
Modify PortNumber in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TerminalServer\WinStations\RDP-Tcp\ from 3389 to your custom number in our case to 4564:
Change RDP port to your choice between 1024 - 65530
Open Server Manager.
+ Here You will Disable the Original Remote Desktop firewall rule. This will ensure that the default port is not open.
+ Create A new Firewall Rule in the Incoming Section for your new port
+Step 1 Specifiy rule type to Port
+Step 2 Protocol and Ports
+Step 3 Allow connection
+Step 4 -- Profile, Domain , Private and Public
+Step 5 -- Enter details of your new Rule. Profile, Domain , Private and Public
+Step 6 -- Lastly Either restart the server or restart this service "Remote Desktop Configuration"
In regards to
security the setup is not security through obscurity but it prevents
automated bots from discovering your servers open port and performing
brute force password guessing on it. Also if you setup the scope
properly with IP addresses or IP ranges the port will not even come up
on standard port scan. There is nmap tool (now with GUI) that can sort of deduce the port but it is still useless unless you are expert network penetration expert.
As far as maintaining the information about the change of port I recommend you look into NOC software like Nagios. This will tell other admins about what you have done, what the port number for RDP is and who is allowed to access it.
Now Try to login to your rdp port like this....
192.168.0.254:7888
