Remote Desktop to Windows XP workstation

Okay has any one ran into this issue. I have Windows Vista Business on my
laptop, when I try to remote desktop into a Windows Xp workstation that I was
able to remote into before I get the message "The computer can't connect to
the remote computer

Try connecting again. If the problem continues, contact the owner of the
remote computer or your network administrator"

As I said accessing the computer worked before via RDP all of a sudden it
stopped. I can access other XP workstation via my Vista laptop with no
problem. It seems to be something with Vista and this XP workstation although
I have tried other XP workstations and I am able to get access. I have
searched all forums and took some of their suggestions but nothing works
(there is a lot of issue with RDP 6.0 out there). Can anyone help me please!!!

Som of the items I have checked made sure Remote access on the XP
workstation had not been changed. Installed the latest RCP 6.0 on the XP
workstation to see if this rectified the issue.

Since you can RDP from Vista into other XP machines, we can assume that RDP
is running okay on your Vista machine. So now, we move on to basic
troubleshooting ...

Is the basic network connectivity between the Vista nd XP machine okay? test
with ping; at a command prompt on Vista:

C:\>ping <IP address> // where IP address is the address of XP machine
eg
C:\>ping 192.168.0.10

If this fails, there is a basic network connectivity problem in the
physical, data link or network layers.

If it works okay, move on to name resolution:

C:\>ping <machine name> (where "machine name"IP address is the
address of XP machine)
eg
C:\>ping GroovyXP1

If this fails, there is a problem with name resolution. You need to check
your DNS settings, and see if the ame name is recognised from other machines
as well (maybe the XP machine is not registering in DNS?)

Assuming you can ping bthe XP machine by name, we know that basic network
connection is okay and name resolution is okay. So the problem must be
somewhere in the TCP or higher layers.

RDP goes over TCP Port 3389. By default, this is turned OFF in XP. It should
be enabled when Remote Desktop is tunred on, but, hey ... anyway on the XP
machine go to Control Panel, System, Remote and make sure the "Allow users
to connect remotely to this computer" is turned ON. Next, go to Control
Panel. Windows Firewall, Exceptions, and make sure that "Remote Desktop" is
checked, as an exception.

Next, make sure that TermServ service is active on the XP machine (this is
the service which listens for incoming RDP requests). At a acommnd prompt on
teh XP machine, do:

C:\>netstat -ano | findstr 3389

to find all processes active on TCP Port 3389. You should see something
like:

C:\Documents and Settings\User>netstat -ano | findstr 3389
TCP 0.0.0.0:3389 0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING
848

where "848" is the Process ID of the process listening on port 3389 (you
will probably get a different number than 848).

Next, see what Process Number 848 (or whichever PID you got from Netstat)
is:

C:\>tasklist /svc

Look down the list of processes for one with a PID of <PID>, eg in my case
848, or whatever was returned when you ran Netstat. You should see something
like:

C:\Documents and Settings\User>tasklist /svc

Image Name PID Services
========================= ======
=============================================
System Idle Process 0 N/A
System 4 N/A
<snip>
svchost.exe 848 DcomLaunch, TermService
svchost.exe 916 RpcSs
svchost.exe 1012 AudioSrv, BITS, CryptSvc, Dhcp, dmserver,
<snip>

The important bit you're looking for is "TermService". It is actually hosted
within a generic process called SvcHost.exe.

If TermServuice is active and listening on port 3389, and the firewall has
3389 open, and RDP works from Vista to other machines, and you still cannot
connect to this XP machine, then ... sorry; buggered if I know!! :-( A
nework trace using NetMon would soon reveal the problem; but that's too hard
to describe in a newsgroup. Find a friendly local geek who like sniffing
networks. Or, look in the Event Log in both the XP and Vista machines, to
see if any events were logged to indicate why Remote Desktop failed go to
Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Event Viewer. Look under Application
Events and System events - ccould be clues in either.

Good luck, hope it helps,
--
Andrew McLaren
amclar (at) optusnet dot com dot au

computerman wrote:
> Okay has any one ran into this issue. I have Windows Vista Business on my
> laptop, when I try to remote desktop into a Windows Xp workstation that I was
> able to remote into before I get the message "The computer can't connect to
> the remote computer
>
> Try connecting again. If the problem continues, contact the owner of the
> remote computer or your network administrator"
>
> As I said accessing the computer worked before via RDP all of a sudden it
> stopped. I can access other XP workstation via my Vista laptop with no
> problem. It seems to be something with Vista and this XP workstation although
> I have tried other XP workstations and I am able to get access. I have
> searched all forums and took some of their suggestions but nothing works
> (there is a lot of issue with RDP 6.0 out there). Can anyone help me please!!!
>
> Som of the items I have checked made sure Remote access on the XP
> workstation had not been changed. Installed the latest RCP 6.0 on the XP
> workstation to see if this rectified the issue.


Is there any wireless stuff involved? Some wireless drivers break a
protocol and there's a simple fix. I notice the error message doesn't
always lead you toward the real problem sometimes

I don't think this is the problem but if nothing else works ...

> http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/XP_FixLogon.zip

"computerman" <> wrote in message
news:244FEF6D-6098-40E4-B80E-...
> Okay has any one ran into this issue. I have Windows Vista Business on my
> laptop, when I try to remote desktop into a Windows Xp workstation that I
> was
> able to remote into before I get the message "The computer can't connect
> to
> the remote computer
>
> Try connecting again. If the problem continues, contact the owner of the
> remote computer or your network administrator"
>
> As I said accessing the computer worked before via RDP all of a sudden it
> stopped. I can access other XP workstation via my Vista laptop with no
> problem. It seems to be something with Vista and this XP workstation
> although
> I have tried other XP workstations and I am able to get access. I have
> searched all forums and took some of their suggestions but nothing works
> (there is a lot of issue with RDP 6.0 out there). Can anyone help me
> please!!!
>
> Som of the items I have checked made sure Remote access on the XP
> workstation had not been changed. Installed the latest RCP 6.0 on the XP
> workstation to see if this rectified the issue.


Well... if you can "hit" other XP boxes using RD... then one must assume
it's not a problem on the Vista box. One must assume something changed on
the target XP box that is preventing you from RD'ing in from the Vista box.
Can you RD into the problem box from a different box, XP or Vista?

Lang

Thanks for th help Andrew, but I tried all the items you posted and it all
looks fine. I can ping the ip and name so DNS is working. I did the netstat
command and it looks like it is listening on port 3389 and also Termserv is
in the tasklist. Nothing shows up in the Event Viewer which is not normal,
ist is almost like it is not getting to the workstation.

Where can I get the netmon utility to monitor the network?

"Andrew McLaren" wrote:

> Since you can RDP from Vista into other XP machines, we can assume that RDP
> is running okay on your Vista machine. So now, we move on to basic
> troubleshooting ...
>
> Is the basic network connectivity between the Vista nd XP machine okay? test
> with ping; at a command prompt on Vista:
>
> C:\>ping <IP address> // where IP address is the address of XP machine
> eg
> C:\>ping 192.168.0.10
>
> If this fails, there is a basic network connectivity problem in the
> physical, data link or network layers.
>
> If it works okay, move on to name resolution:
>
> C:\>ping <machine name> (where "machine name"IP address is the
> address of XP machine)
> eg
> C:\>ping GroovyXP1
>
> If this fails, there is a problem with name resolution. You need to check
> your DNS settings, and see if the ame name is recognised from other machines
> as well (maybe the XP machine is not registering in DNS?)
>
> Assuming you can ping bthe XP machine by name, we know that basic network
> connection is okay and name resolution is okay. So the problem must be
> somewhere in the TCP or higher layers.
>
> RDP goes over TCP Port 3389. By default, this is turned OFF in XP. It should
> be enabled when Remote Desktop is tunred on, but, hey ... anyway on the XP
> machine go to Control Panel, System, Remote and make sure the "Allow users
> to connect remotely to this computer" is turned ON. Next, go to Control
> Panel. Windows Firewall, Exceptions, and make sure that "Remote Desktop" is
> checked, as an exception.
>
> Next, make sure that TermServ service is active on the XP machine (this is
> the service which listens for incoming RDP requests). At a acommnd prompt on
> teh XP machine, do:
>
> C:\>netstat -ano | findstr 3389
>
> to find all processes active on TCP Port 3389. You should see something
> like:
>
> C:\Documents and Settings\User>netstat -ano | findstr 3389
> TCP 0.0.0.0:3389 0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING
> 848
>
> where "848" is the Process ID of the process listening on port 3389 (you
> will probably get a different number than 848).
>
> Next, see what Process Number 848 (or whichever PID you got from Netstat)
> is:
>
> C:\>tasklist /svc
>
> Look down the list of processes for one with a PID of <PID>, eg in my case
> 848, or whatever was returned when you ran Netstat. You should see something
> like:
>
> C:\Documents and Settings\User>tasklist /svc
>
> Image Name PID Services
> ========================= ======
> =============================================
> System Idle Process 0 N/A
> System 4 N/A
> <snip>
> svchost.exe 848 DcomLaunch, TermService
> svchost.exe 916 RpcSs
> svchost.exe 1012 AudioSrv, BITS, CryptSvc, Dhcp, dmserver,
> <snip>
>
> The important bit you're looking for is "TermService". It is actually hosted
> within a generic process called SvcHost.exe.
>
> If TermServuice is active and listening on port 3389, and the firewall has
> 3389 open, and RDP works from Vista to other machines, and you still cannot
> connect to this XP machine, then ... sorry; buggered if I know!! :-( A
> nework trace using NetMon would soon reveal the problem; but that's too hard
> to describe in a newsgroup. Find a friendly local geek who like sniffing
> networks. Or, look in the Event Log in both the XP and Vista machines, to
> see if any events were logged to indicate why Remote Desktop failed go to
> Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Event Viewer. Look under Application
> Events and System events - ccould be clues in either.
>
> Good luck, hope it helps,
> --
> Andrew McLaren
> amclar (at) optusnet dot com dot au
>
>

Sorry no wireless on the XP workstation, would the file work on Vista. I have
a Vista laptop with wireless.

"Charlie Tame" wrote:

> computerman wrote:
> > Okay has any one ran into this issue. I have Windows Vista Business on my
> > laptop, when I try to remote desktop into a Windows Xp workstation that I was
> > able to remote into before I get the message "The computer can't connect to
> > the remote computer
> >
> > Try connecting again. If the problem continues, contact the owner of the
> > remote computer or your network administrator"
> >
> > As I said accessing the computer worked before via RDP all of a sudden it
> > stopped. I can access other XP workstation via my Vista laptop with no
> > problem. It seems to be something with Vista and this XP workstation although
> > I have tried other XP workstations and I am able to get access. I have
> > searched all forums and took some of their suggestions but nothing works
> > (there is a lot of issue with RDP 6.0 out there). Can anyone help me please!!!
> >
> > Som of the items I have checked made sure Remote access on the XP
> > workstation had not been changed. Installed the latest RCP 6.0 on the XP
> > workstation to see if this rectified the issue.
>
>
> Is there any wireless stuff involved? Some wireless drivers break a
> protocol and there's a simple fix. I notice the error message doesn't
> always lead you toward the real problem sometimes
>
> I don't think this is the problem but if nothing else works ...
>
> > http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/XP_FixLogon.zip
>
>

I tried another XP box with no luck. I am running a virus scan on the XP
workstation to see if I find anything on the workstation that maybe blocking
port 3389.

"Lang Murphy" wrote:

> "computerman" <> wrote in message
> news:244FEF6D-6098-40E4-B80E-...
> > Okay has any one ran into this issue. I have Windows Vista Business on my
> > laptop, when I try to remote desktop into a Windows Xp workstation that I
> > was
> > able to remote into before I get the message "The computer can't connect
> > to
> > the remote computer
> >
> > Try connecting again. If the problem continues, contact the owner of the
> > remote computer or your network administrator"
> >
> > As I said accessing the computer worked before via RDP all of a sudden it
> > stopped. I can access other XP workstation via my Vista laptop with no
> > problem. It seems to be something with Vista and this XP workstation
> > although
> > I have tried other XP workstations and I am able to get access. I have
> > searched all forums and took some of their suggestions but nothing works
> > (there is a lot of issue with RDP 6.0 out there). Can anyone help me
> > please!!!
> >
> > Som of the items I have checked made sure Remote access on the XP
> > workstation had not been changed. Installed the latest RCP 6.0 on the XP
> > workstation to see if this rectified the issue.
>
>
> Well... if you can "hit" other XP boxes using RD... then one must assume
> it's not a problem on the Vista box. One must assume something changed on
> the target XP box that is preventing you from RD'ing in from the Vista box.
> Can you RD into the problem box from a different box, XP or Vista?
>
> Lang
>

"computerman" <> wrote ...
> Thanks for th help Andrew, but I tried all the items you posted and it all
> looks fine. I can ping the ip and name so DNS is working. I did the
> netstat

One more thing I thought you could try. Make a telnet connection to Port
3389 on the XP machine. This would help isolate whether it is some kind of
networking issue, or something in the configuration of Remote Desktop.

First, I'm assuming that other machines, say other XP machines, can Remote
Desktop into the "problem" XP machine - right? The problem is specific to
that particular Vista-XP machine pair? Or do other machines also hit the
same problem, when RDP'ing to the XP box?

On Vista, the Telnet Client is not installed by default (unlike 2000 and
XP). You need to go into Control Panel, Programs and Feartures, Windows
Features On or Off. and select to install Telnet client (if you don't
already have it installed).

Then telnet to the XP machine, giving the RDP Port as a command line
parameter; for example:

C:\Users\amclaren>telnet xpvm 3389

If it waits for 20 or so seconds and gives an error message:

Connecting To xpvm...Could not open connection to the host, on port
3389: Connect failed

.... then there is a basic network block between the 2 machines such as a
firewall or router, which is blocking access.

If telnet suceeds, you'll just get a blank window and a flsahing cursor.
It's not much confirmation, but telnet has been able to connect. In this
case the problem is more related to the configuration of RDP itself, rather
than the network.

> Where can I get the netmon utility to monitor the network?

It's a free download, from here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

Just to set expectations, I can't undertake to analyse the trace for you - I
do that for a living, so I charge people money for it :-) But if you're
familiar with networking, it should all be pretty straightfoward. You're
looking for some kind of error in the TCP session or RDP session between the
addresses of the Vista Box, and the XP Box.
--
Andrew McLaren
amclar (at) optusnet dot com dot au

"computerman" <> wrote in message
news:C7AA9CCF-F078-488D-BD50-...
>I tried another XP box with no luck. I am running a virus scan on the XP
> workstation to see if I find anything on the workstation that maybe
> blocking
> port 3389.
>

<snip>

Well... good luck with that... let the group know your findings.

Lang

"Lang Murphy" wrote:

> "computerman" <> wrote in message
> news:C7AA9CCF-F078-488D-BD50-...
> >I tried another XP box with no luck. I am running a virus scan on the XP
> > workstation to see if I find anything on the workstation that maybe
> > blocking
> > port 3389.
> >
>
> <snip>
>
> Well... good luck with that... let the group know your findings.
>
> Lang
>

Ran a virus scan and spyware scan and both did not find any virus or spyware.