Title: Port of the week: rdesktop

	Title: Port of the week: rdesktop
	Author: Solène
	Date: 20 May 2016
	Tags: portoftheweek
	Description:

	This week we will have a quick look at the tool rdesktop. Rdesktop
	is a RDP client (RDP stands for Remote Desktop Protocol) which is used
	to share your desktop with another machine. RDP is a Microsoft thing
	and it's most used on Windows.

	I am personally using it because sometimes I need to use Microsoft
	Word/Excel or Windows only software and I have a dedidated virtual
	machine for this. So I use rdesktop to connect in fullscreen to
	the virtual machine and I can work on Windows. The RDP protocol is
	very efficient, on LAN network there is no lag. I appreciate much more
	using the VM with RDP than VNC.

	You can also have RDP servers within virtual machines. VirtualBox let
	you have (with an additional package to add on the host) RDP server
	for a VM. Maybe VmWare provides RDP servers too. I know that Xen and
	KVM can give access through VNC or Spice but no RDP.

	For its usage, if you want to connect to a RDP server whose IP address
	is 192.168.1.100 in fullscreen with max quality, type:

	$ rdesktop -f -x 0x80 192.168.1.100

	The `-x 0x80` bit is needed to set the quality at maximum. If the
	machine needs username and password you can add **`-u my_user -p
	my_plaintext_pass`** to login automatically. I have an alias in my zsh
	shell, I just type "windows" and I get logged in in fullscreen to the
	windows machine.

	To exit fullscreen type ctrl+alt+return to switch to windowed mode
	and again to go in fullscreen mode. I wasn't able to remember the
	keyboard shortcut the first times and was stuck in Windows ! ;-)

	In the OpenBSD ports tree, check x11/rdesktop.