Use Terminal Server Client to Connect to a Different Port

When working with Terminal Server or RDP you have the choice to use either the XP RDP, or the newer Windows Server 2003 RDP SP1 5.2 client (Download RDP 5.2). But there are still people who would like to continue working with the "old" Windows 2000 Terminal Server client, that can be found in the %systemroot%\system32\clients folder.

If you've changed the listening port on the TS from its' default - 3389 (Change Terminal Server Listening Port)- you'll also need to configure your TS client to connect to the new port. Although changing the connection port on the RDP clients is quite easy (Use RDP Client to Connect to a Different Port), you CAN also change the connection port for the TS client.


To Alter the Port on the client side:

1. Open Client Connection Manager.
2. On the File menu, click New Connection, and then create the new connection. After running the wizard, you should have a new connection listed there.
3. Making sure that the new connection is highlighted, on the File menu, click Export. Save it as name.cns. Edit the .cns file using Notepad changing "Server Port=3389" to "Server Port=xxxx" where xxxx is the new port that you specified on Terminal Server.
4. Now import the file back into Client Connection Manager. You may be prompted to overwrite the current one, if it has the same name. Go ahead and overwrite it. You now have a client that has the correct port settings to match your change Terminal Server settings.