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the certificate is not from a trusted certifying authority

Please help!  

I have a simple server that I have enabled RDP on at work.  I go home, fire up Remote Desktop, type in a public IP address, log on with my credentials, and I'm in.  

During the logon process, I get an alert like the one attached: "the certificate is not from a trusted certifying authority".  If I go through the process of installing the certificate, I get the prompt "The server name on the certificate is incorrect".  

I don't want to ignore the prompt (I have to explain the prompt to management).  Is there a way I can get rid of it without having to buy an external certificate, setup an enterprise CA, or setting Remote Desktop to not warn me about it (advanced tab > server authentication option)?  Can I safely ignore it, since I'm using an IP address that I know, and can be fairly certain it's not a man in the middle attack?  I do have NLA enabled on the remote box.  

The remote box is server 2012 and my home computer is Windows 7 with the latest version of Remote Desktop.  

Thank you all, I appreciate any help I can get.
Remote AccessWindows Server 2012Windows 7

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npinfotech

8/22/2022 - Mon
Dave Baldwin

Self-signed certificates are never 'trusted'.  You have to purchase a certificate from a reputable vendor to get it to be "from a trusted certifying authority".  Only then will there be a certificate chain that leads back to a "trusted certifying authority".
David Johnson, CD

Since you don't want to set up a proper certificate you can elect to ignore it.  If the certificate changes you will have to agree to ignore it in the future.
npinfotech

ASKER
Thank you for the responses, I appreciate them.  

My understanding is that the point of the prompt is to ultimately help prevent man-in-the-middle attacks.  Since I am using NLA and am using an IP address to connect, is a man-in-the-middle still possible, or highly unlikely?
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Dave Baldwin

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npinfotech

ASKER
Thanks.  Is there a way I can visually tell if the information on the prompt is actually legitimate (spot if something is wrong)?
Dave Baldwin

Certificate error messages normally give the details of their complaint.  A valid certificate will show in the address bar where you can click on it to get more info about it.
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npinfotech

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I will be opening another thread based on this
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