I use remote desktop to connect to another one of my machines that in a different physical location.

Because they are on different networks and different ISPs I tunnel the RDP connection through an SSH Tunnel using Putty. 

Now here's a weird thing.. 

I have a machine on one network set up connected to a linux server using putty with remote port 3778 forwarded to 192.168.0.5:3389.

On the other network I connect to putty and redirect localhost:3778 to the remote localhost tunnel 3778 and it forwards the connection.

It connects with the traditional remote desktop connection just fine by connecting to localhost:3778 but when I try to use the Windows 8 remote desktop connection client to connect to localhost:3778 it does not respond. I have also tried using a different host name forwarded to localhost just in case there was some kind of block in place against rdp connections to localhost.

Any help would be appreciated!

MrChuck

Make sure Remote Desktop is able to communicate through your firewall
1. Open Windows Firewall.
2. Click Allow an app or feature through Windows Firewall.
3. Under Allowed apps and features, scroll down to Remote Desktop and make sure its check box is selected.
4. Under Home/Work (Private), make sure the check box next to Remote Desktop is selected.

Meanwhile, you can disable your security software temporarily to check the result.

Sorry to revive a 2 year old thread, but has this been resolved?  I am seeing exactly the problem described in the original post with my SSH tunnelling / RDP setup.  The traditional "desktop" RDP application will connect just fine to localhost:port, but the Windows 8 app from the store just hangs at initiating.  Disabling the windows firewall didn't help.  Any thoughts?

I am experience the same problem with my new Windows 8.1 computer. It works fine and always has from my Windows 7 desktop. I have spent numerous hours trying to resolve this problem. My firewall is turned off on my machine,and  I am using PuTTY with redirect 127.2.2.2:3389 forwarded to interanetIP:3389. PuTTY is working but when I then use RDP 8.1 with 127.2.2.2 I get the message that my credential did not work. When prompted for a username, I enter the computer name\username. 

I have found that if I try to connect without PuTTY to a really IP address using RDP, I have to enter the computer name\username to make it work; just entering in the username does not work. 

I believe that the problem lies in that I am using an SSH tunnel to access a computer with a private IP on my intranet and that the protocol is being rejected by Windows 8.1. Any help would be appreciated!

LPike

Sorry for asking the same question. Win 8.1 full update. All possible suggested workarounds tried. No parameters selectable in BIOS. BUT still in the window where the remote access is controlled I just see the top part and not the bottom part where the allowed OS can be selected. Obiously firewall, antivirus etc. disabled . Any idea? This is causing me a big trouble. RDP towards remote PCs (actually win 7...) no problem. Suggestions welcome

You try command mstsc.exe in command line. I think that you need this Remote Desktop Client.