RDP connectivity/responsiveness test

Question

I want to write an app to test whether a Windows machine is responding correctly to RDP (Remote Desktop) - i.e. to check if the machine not only allows the connection, but is also responding normally, and is not hung or otherwise responding abnormally.

Is there a library or utility that I can use to do this? My searches turned up full RDC clients, but I'm hoping there's something out there at least offers an API for testing. I would most like to use Java or a scripting language to do this, but I'm open to suggestions.

Answer 1

Found this on Expert Sexchange:

use Net::Telnet ();
$t = new Net::Telnet (Timeout => 10, Prompt => '', Port >= 3389);
if($t->open("computer.name.or.ip")) {
    print "Connect successful\n";
}
else {
    print "Could not connect\n";
}

The idea was to attempt a connection and if it can't connect within 'x' amount of seconds, assume it isn't going to work. Gets a bit more complicated if you're trying to see if a login for a specific user works or not, but this should at least get you started.

NOTE: As pointed out in the comments, the original solution left out the RDP port, so I included that in this...