Remote Desktop

[Radical789]

When I use Remote Desktop from a laptop to connect to a domain at work it allows me to connect to one of the PC's but the one I want to connect to it tells me I cannot. Says PC might be busy or there may be network problems etc.

I CAN connect to this computer from a home PC (not a laptop). I have compared all the settings I can think of between the 2 computers at work and the home PC and laptop. Can't seem to find a difference.

Any ideas on some obscure place to look?

 

[SagaLore]

The computer you're trying to connect to may have SP2 Firewall enabled. Ping it and see what response you get. Hopefully I've understoond the scenario you're giving.

 

[Radical789]

Firewall is turned off. The strange thing is that I can connect to this domain computer using my home PC but not the laptop. But that same laptop WILL connect to another computer on the same domain and will even connect to the server!
I get the same result no matter who I logon the domain as (I am also the administrator of the domain).
I can establish the connection to the domain but as soon as I run remote desktop from the laptop to that particular computer, it will not let me in.
I am stumped.

 

[SagaLore]

Originally posted by: Radical789
Firewall is turned off. The strange thing is that I can connect to this domain computer using my home PC but not the laptop. But that same laptop WILL connect to another computer on the same domain and will even connect to the server!
I get the same result no matter who I logon the domain as (I am also the administrator of the domain).
I can establish the connection to the domain but as soon as I run remote desktop from the laptop to that particular computer, it will not let me in.
I am stumped.

Let's narrow this problem down.

When you attempt a connect with remote desktop, do you get an error before seeing a login, or do you get an error while trying to login?

Can you ping the machine you're trying to terminal into?

Are you trying to terminal using the host name, or the IP address?

Do you have the adminpak installed on this laptop? If you do, can you open Terminal Services Manager and look at the info for the server?

How are you connecting with your home PC? By public IP address with a tunnel through the firewall, by public IP address with the server in the public, or by a VPN connection into the network?

 

[Radical789]

I'm not sure that I understand all of your questions but will try to answer as much as possible. I am using a vpn to connect to the static IP address of our network server. I don't know how to ping a specific machine on the domain. I am able to establish a connection to the domain (with the laptop) and can check email from the exchange server. It is when I try to connect to that specific computer and before I get the login screen that the error happens. It says I can't connect to the computer because it might be busy or there may be a network problem. But if I try my home PC I can connect without a problem.

All have XP Pro SP2 and all updates. Firewall off on the machine I am trying to connect to. I have tried it with the laptop firewall on or off...same result.

I don't have adminpak installed and have never used Terminal Services Manager. If it's easy to explain I will be happy to try.

 

[Radical789]

I changed the name of the computer and that seemed to solve the problem. It was originally called computer6. I made it computer6A and the laptop connected just fine. Just for the heck of it I changed it back to computer6 and it would not connect. Must be some little quirk somewhere that made the two machines not want to communicate with that name.
Thanks for your help anyway.

 

[imported_JFG]

Strange!!!!

 

[SagaLore]

Originally posted by: Radical789
I changed the name of the computer and that seemed to solve the problem. It was originally called computer6. I made it computer6A and the laptop connected just fine. Just for the heck of it I changed it back to computer6 and it would not connect. Must be some little quirk somewhere that made the two machines not want to communicate with that name.
Thanks for your help anyway.

That could mean several things.

You had a stale dns record of another machine that was called computer6, but used a different IP. Or, your had a previously named machine called computer6 that wasn't properly deregistered from the domain before being wiped out, leaving the old SID in active directory. Both of these would cause resolution problems between machines on a network and especially when authentication was involved.