Remote Desktop Connection Suddenly Stopped Working

[ricob]

Hey all,

I've been using Remote Desktop Connection for almost a year now without any problems. I've just come back from a weekend away though, and suddenly my desktop computer cannot be connected to via RD across the home network. The error message I get is: "The client could not connect to the remote computer. Remote connections might not be enabled or the computer might be too busy to accept new connections. It is also possible..."

I have one XP Pro laptop and another XP Hm laptop connected wirelessly to a Netgear router and an XP Pro desktop wired in to the same router via ethernet. During troubleshooting I've disabled all copies of Norton and ZoneAlarm. I can see the desktop PC on the network and access shared resources - so it's not a network problem.

I've used netstat -ano to check that it's listening on 3389, and the Process ID points to svchost.exe as expected. I've confirmed that HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\WinStations\RDP-Tcp is still set to 3389, and services.msc confirms that the Terminal service has been started.

I can still connect from one laptop to the other laptop without any problems, so I don't think it's a router issue. In the router I have port 3389 forwarded to the desktop for external IP connections, but have tried removing/re-adding that just to make sure to no avail. I have one laptop that can do it fine and right next to it a desktop that won't budge and I have no idea why. I can't see anything set up differently between the two with regards to RDC.

I've spent hours on this and ran out of suggestions from google and MSDN. Please save me from a re-install!!

Rich.

[darkfiber1010]

RDC can be frustrating at times, especially when it doesn't work. First get the obvious out of the way.

Make sure the hostname didn't change if that’s what you are using to connect.

Make sure the IP address didn't change if that’s what you are using to connect.

Make sure the Allow Remote Desktop Connections box is still checked in System Properties, Remote Tab. (I know you said the service is running though so it should be).

I noticed you said you had external RDC connections forwarded to the desktop. It’s possible that somehow someone got into your machine remotely and messed around with things and that’s why it no longer works. Although this is not likely, I don't know what kind of security you have set up, so just keep it in mind.

Personally I never use the default RDC ports when making external connections. RDC uses well known ports and it is not wise to keep the default ports when using RDC in an external connection scenario (connecting to your computer at home from a computer somewhere else via the Internet). So you can do one of two things. You could create a VPN connection and RDC over that which would eliminate the need to change RDC ports and make the connection more secure overall. Or if you don't want to go through the hassle of a VPN you could change the RDC ports by following these steps:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...kb;en-us;306759

Another good source of security info for RDC:

http://www.mobydisk.com/techres/securing_remote_desktop.html

Sorry for getting side tracked with security stuff, hope you figure out your problem.

[ricob]

Thanks for your suggestions darkfiber. While I was running through them I discovered the problem.

Although I disabled Norton's auto-protect during testing, the worm protection stays on. This had somehow blacklisted svchost.exe and was the cause of the problem.

Nice and easy, after a week of misery!!

Rich.