How-To: Rdesktop over (HTTP) Proxy

How to connect to a remote desktop host via an HTTP Proxy

In this example we will use, once again, socat. Here is how to connect to a Terminal Server which can be reach only behind an HTTP Proxy.

First, make sure that your $http_proxy environment variable is set properly.

Add the following function to your ~/.bashrc:

function rdesktop_proxy () {
 
 if [ $# -lt 1 ]; then
  echo "usage: $0 <hostname/ip>"
  return
 fi

 HOST=$1
 PROXY_HOST=$(echo $http_proxy | sed 's,http:,,;s,/,,g' | cut -d: -f1)
 PROXY_PORT=$(echo $http_proxy | sed 's,http:,,;s,/,,g' | cut -d: -f2)

 socat TCP4-LISTEN:51515,bind=127.0.0.1,reuseaddr PROXY:$PROXY_HOST:$HOST:3389,proxyport=$PROXY_PORT &

 /usr/local/bin/xfreerdp +clipboard +home-drive "/t:$1" /v:127.0.0.1:51515 "${@:2}"
}

Then re-source your shell:

source ~/.bashrc

And you can just type:

rdesktop_proxy my.rdpdomain.com /u:John

The example above use the xfreerdp client, but you can adjust it to use your favourite RDP client, you get the idea.