IP addresses and computer names

Multiple users can be logged on simultaneously to a Remote Desktop Session Host (RD Session Host) server. Consequently, it is not safe to assume that the computer name or the IP address assigned to the computer are associated with a single user. This differs from a single-user Windows environment, in which only one user is logged on at a time.

Applications that use the computer name or IP address for licensing or as a means of identifying an iteration of the application on the network will not work properly in a Remote Desktop Services environment, because the server's computer name or IP address can be associated with many users.

In a Remote Desktop Services environment, each client terminal or terminal emulator has a separate IP address and computer name. To retrieve the IP address and computer name of a client, call the WTSQuerySessionInformation function. Other functions that retrieve these network addresses and computer names retrieve the name and address of the RD Session Host server. For example, the GetComputerNameEx function returns the computer name of the server.