As of July 18, 2026. We will be moving away from nomachine for remote desktop. In lieu of nomachine, we will be using xrdp, with it’s web interface remote.eng.utah.edu.
For off campus connections see the section Off-Campus Connections below.
Web Usage
We are still dealing with some web client issues, this will be made available shortly, and will replace nx.eng.utah.edu
Direct Connections
You can connect directly to a machine, this can be more stable than using [remote.eng.utah.edu], but requires more setup.
Client setup is by OS below, if connecting from off campus you will need the campus VPN or ssh tunneling to connect.
Linux:
Install an RDP client, freerdp and Remmina are recommended.
Debian based distros: (debian, mint, pop_os, ubuntu…)
`sudo apt install remmina`
For other distros and for freerdp, please consult your distro’s documentation.
Configuration: (replace labx-xx with your desired lab machine)
Protocol: RDP
Server: labx-xx.eng.utah.edu
Username: [your cade username]
Password: [your cade password]
Domain: “USERS”
Remmina configuration example:
freerdp configuration example:
– I’m using wlfreerdp3 for wayland, older distros may require xfreerdp3
– `wlfreerdp3 /v:lab1-39.eng.utah.edu:3389 /u:uXXXXXXX /d:USERS /w:1920 \h:1080`
– /v: hostname and port of the lab machine
– /u: your cade username
– /d: USERS
– /w: remote screen resolution width
– /h: remote screen resolution height
Ignore a certificate warning if it appears.
Windows:
For the official Microsoft RDP Client (Windows app on Windows)
– You’ll need Windows 10 or higher to install
– Download and Install it from the Microsoft app store
– Open it from the start menu
– Once the window opens click on the “Choose a resource to add” box
– Click on “Additional Settings”
– Fill out the lab machine you want to connect to as the PC name (e.g. lab1-20.eng.utah.edu)
– Fill out a Display name if you like to give the machine a proper name
– Leave the settings default in the Display and Redirections tabs.
– Fill out the user name and password boxes with your CADE credentials.
Ignore a certificate warning if it appears.
For the built-in Remote desktop Connection software in Windows (mstsc)
– In the search tab, search for Remote Desktop Connection or mstsc
– Once open, click “Show Options” and fill out the lab machine you want to connect to in the Computer box (e.g. lab1-20.eng.utah.edu)
– Fill out your user name as “USERS\{your CADE username}” (e.g. USERS\u8675309)
– Leave every other tab as defaults.
– You can also change the top box in the performance box in the Experience tab to “LAN (10 Mbps or higher)” for increased performance.
Ignore a certificate warning if it appears.
MacOS
– For the official Microsoft RDP Client (Windows app) on macOS
– You’ll need macOS Sonoma (14.0) or higher to install.
– Download and install from the Mac app store
– Open it
– Click on the “+” near the top right of the devices window.
– Click “Add PC”
– Fill out the lab machine that you want to connect to as the PC name (e.g. lab1-20.eng.utah.edu)
– You can have it ask for credentials when required or add them (use “USERS\{your CADE username}” e.g. USERS\u8675309 for the username)
– You can give the PC and credentials a friendly name to give a proper name
– Leave the settings default in the Display, Devices & Audio, and Folders tabs.
– If you chose ask when required in the credentials fill them out when asked.
Ignore a certificate warning if it appears.
Off-Campus connections
It may be easiest to install and use U-IT’s campus vpn, this is recommended for most users: https://cade.utah.edu/faqs/connecting-to-coe-via-the-campus-vpn/
To connect directly over ssh, run in a terminal:
– `ssh -L 3389:127.0.0.1:3389 lab2-3.eng.utah.edu -N`
– This will open port 3389 on the remote, in this case lab2-3, as 127.0.0.1:3389 on your local machine.
– Configure freerdp or remmina above or the Windows and Mac options below to connect to 127.0.0.1 instead of the lab machine.
Remmina: Configure your remmina connection’s “SSH Tunnel” Section:
– Click “Enable SSH tunnel”
– Authentication type: Password
– Username: your cade username.
For SSH Tunneling via Windows (PuTTY)
– Download and open PuTTY, You can find PuTTY at (https://putty.org).
– Go to the category box and expand the “Connection” tab if it isn’t expanded, then expand the SSH tab, then click Tunnels.
– Put 3390 in the source port (This is just in case your Windows machine has an RDP server enabled otherwise 3389 would work).
– Put 127.0.0.1:3389 in the destination box. This will forward the port 3389 that a lab machine uses to the freshly made port 3390 that your machine will use.
– In the category box, scroll up and click “Session”
Here, you can save the session so you don’t have to type in the tunnel settings everytime. Give the session a name in the text box below “Saved sessions and hit save.
– Type in the name of the lab machine you want to connect to (e.g. lab1-20.eng.utah.edu) in the Host Name box.
– Click Open and type your CADE Username (usually your uNID), your CADE password and the verification code (if needed).
– Leave the SSH session open and open an RDP client (see windows connecting instructions on the page)
– In the host Name box type in 127.0.0.1:3390. Connect as usual.
For SSH Tunneling on Mac
– Open a Terminal
– Type in `ssh -L 3389:127.0.0.1:3389 lab2-3.eng.utah.edu -N`
– This will open port 3389 on the remote, in this case lab2-3, as 127.0.0.1:3389 on your local machine.
-Open the official RDP client (Windows app), add a new PC and use 127.0.0.1:3389 in the host name box and connect as usual.
Troubleshooting:
Web access disconnects when launching program
This is a bug in the latest version of apache-guacamole guacd. Clicking ‘reconnect’ will rejoin your session without losing work. We are working to fix this issue.
Cannot log in after disconnection (BLUE SCREEN)
Occasionally the connection to a machine may be severed, but the process continues to run on the remote machine. This will prevent reconnecting and result in a result in a blue screen.
To resolve this, the process can be killed via ssh as follows:
– Connect via ssh: https://cade.utah.edu/faqs/which-machines-can-i-access-remotely/
– run `killall /usr/sbin/xrdp-chansrv` to terminate xrdp sessions running as your user
– You can now connect as usual
– If this does not resolve it: run `htop`, then use the `F4` key to search for all “xrdp” processes, and kill any running as your user by selecting with arrow keys, then `F9` and scroll to find the SIGTERM or SIGKILL command to kill the given xrdp processes.