Remote Desktop Services (RDS) is a virtual desktop environment for active students, faculty, and staff to remotely connect to a university desktop from any personal computer with a stable broadband internet connection.
Who has access? RDS is available to users that have an active SU student, faculty, staff, guest, or ESF student affiliation.
Table of Contents
Before you Connect
Before you connect for the first time, please note the following important considerations for using the RDS solution:
Save your work to a network location
Just like physical labs on campus, any files saved to the local C: drive will be removed permanently.
- Best practice: save your work to your Syracuse University provided OneDrive account (in the cloud), or your network G: or H: drive.
Save your work often
Although we consider the RDS platform to be stable, working remotely brings many factors into play, such as unexpected network outages, ISP issues, or problems with your home network or personal device(s). Saving early and often will help avoid losing your hard work and valuable time.
- Only one (1) session can be active per user. Logging into another session will disconnect from the previous and reconnect on the new session.
- Google Chrome, Firefox, and Edge are the recommended browsers for connecting through the Web user interface.
- Users are required to have their Microsoft Two-Factor Authentication setup before using RDS.
- Idle sessions will automatically be logged out after four (4) hours.
Configuring and Connecting to RDS
Users are encouraged to access RDS using a web browser, but can also do so using the remote desktop client (RDP):
Available Software on RDS - SULabs resource
The following programs and applications are available when connected to the SULabs instance on RDS:
Troubleshooting
Expand the selection below to see common solutions for issues you might have with RDS:
Issue:
Most issues with RDS can be resolved by clearing the cache of your browser. Issues this would resolve include how the icons for labs display, connecting errors, or certificate/SSL errors. While you can clear all cache and cookies from your browser, you can also just clear the specific information for rds.syr.edu.
Solution:
- To remove only the cookies/cache from rds.syr.edu on Chrome or Edge by clicking the lock icon (
) in your address bar at the top of the screen. - Click on "Cookies" and this will open a new pop-up window:
- Select rds.syr.edu from the list and then click Remove:
Issue:
You receive an error when connecting to a remote desktop session because an unexpected server authentication certificate was received.
Solution:
Clear the SSL cache for your Operating System/Browsers
Steps:
Windows computers using Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge:
- Open the Start menu.
- Search for and open Internet Options.
- In the dialogue box that appears, select the Content tab.
- Click Clear SSL State.
macOS computers using Google Chrome:
- Open Google Chrome
- Click on the kebab menu ( ⋮ ) found at the upper right corner of the browser window.
- Open the History menu, then click the History option from this menu.
- Click Clear Browser Data.
- Set the Time Range to All Time.
- Click Clear Data.
Getting Help
For support of the information above, contact the ITS Help Desk by calling at 315-443-2677, by emailing help@syr.edu, or by stopping into 1-227 CST.
Faculty and staff are highly encouraged to begin support by contacting their academic or administrative support personnel.