Remote Desktop Conundrum

Allright, at the expense of sounding like a DUNCE, I'm here.

I'm at a loss what is wrong. At first I was trying to connect over the WAN, but after it didn't work, I resorted to ensuring that I could remote in over the LAN.

I am trying to connect to a media server I just built. It is running Windows 7 x64 Ultimate. I know the problem it isn't my laptop (the lenovo in my sig W7 HP x64), I use it every day to remote into different locations, and I can remote into other computers on my LAN & over the WAN with it.

I am running stock windows firewall & Windows Security Essentials. I have tried disabling all firewalls, and allowing all types of remote desktop connections.

I've also tried setting it up the more secure settings and indicated users and all that jazz, nothing.

While grumbling, I've read through numerous tutorials. I'm at a loss as to what could be wrong. I can ping the machine by IP & computer name. Network discovery is enabled and I can navigate the server from my laptop, and it's not like these connections are slow, both my laptop I'm using and the server have gigabit ethernet ports connected to a Linksys e2000 running DD-WRT.

Anyways, that's about all relevant data I can provide.

 

Is the Network Location set to Home Group, Work or Public? If Public RDP requests are rejected. Is there a password on the Media Machine? RDP connections are also rejected if no passworded account resides on the target.

 

It is set to Home & there are two passworded accounts. In fact, I took the credentials on my laptop and created an account on the server with identical user/pass, as that has helped in the past with other networking problems.

 

risking of sounding naive, have you enabled RDP on the said machine ? And what is the error message you see when you cannot RDP into it from the client side ?

 

did you port forward 3389 on the router to the server address?

 

I have done all of those things =]

I actually changed the RDP port in the Registry & forwarded it accordingly. But this shouldn't matter for remoting over the LAN, I can remote into my other laptop no problems, and no port is forwarded there (it is likely using the default 3389).

 

Going out on limb...Have you activated the copy of Win 7 Ult on the media box? Also you can try Live Mesh from Live Essentials 2011 on both machines...

 

Yep, activated it, in fact, that was one thing I checked during my troubleshooting.

Windows Live Mesh works, just need to figure out if I can get it to connect w/o having to answer any dialogue on the server.

 

Hmmm...if Mesh is working that makes is weirder as they use the same RDP security. Any relevent evens in the App or System Event Log?

 

Event 7036 seems to be triggered each time I try to connect, but I don't see how that sheds any light, it's not an error.

Perhaps I'll go into the registry and change the port back to default. Not sure if Windows Firewall gives a stink about it, I did create a rule for the custom port I was using.

Won't be able to try for a couple days as I'm house sitting for somone and leaving here shortly.

Thanks for the help thusfar!
=]

 

which RDP setting are you using? Are you using the allow connections from any version of RDP or allow connections using RDP with NTLM?

Also can you check the windows event manager and your router's event log to see if the router's responding to the RDP request on whatever port you configured or if it's a windows issue.

 

I've tried both settings. And I can remote into my other laptop in the same LAN over the same router (Except it's wireless) running Windows 7 x64 Professional

 

the only thing I can think of is that maybe the RDP services got disabled.

Try this:
Can?t Connect Remote Desktop to Windows 7- How to Fix?

 

Well, b/c of the great advice I received about Windows Live Mesh, I'm able to remote in and check if the services were disabled, and they were not. I even tried enabling/starting "Routing and Remote Access". No dice =\

Thanks for all the attempts! This one is quickly becoming a needle in my patoot.

 

Reporting back.

So, for whatever reason, the server did not like me changing the default port for remote desktop, even thought the firewall rules were set up and the forwarding was in place on the router.

I changed the port back to default in the registry and my router's forwarding settings and all is well.

Sorry to cause all these problems, but at least we now know =]

Thanks again!

 

ah, so you monkey around with Microsoft's default setting, that usually is not a good idea

 

From my experience, you don't have to change the default RDP port (3389) on each local computer in Windows; just change the port forwarding settings in the router if you are connecting from the internet. The reason is because all computers can see each other if they are in the same Workgroup and local network.

Sign in for RDP from the internet:
Comp 1: 76.167.124.234:3389
Comp 2: 76.167.124.234:3390
Comp 3: 76.167.124.234:3391

You can try these settings for port forwarding in the router (which eliminates the need to assign each computer a unique RDP port in Windows):
Unique Static IP for Comp 1: Port from: 3389; Port to: 3389
Unique Static IP for Comp 2: Port from: 3390; Port to: 3389
Unique Static IP for Comp 3: Port from: 3391; Port to: 3389

You can do it the easier way and VPN into your network, which eliminates the need to assign each computer a unique RDP port.

I could be wrong, but this is how it works for me when I use RDP.

 

or use Mesh which would do it for you

 

Doesn't Live Mesh connect to a central server "in the cloud" owned by Microsoft before connecting to his network? Similar to Teamviewer?

I think RDP is a better because he's connecting directly to his network instead of going through a central server to connect to his network.

Correct me if I am wrong.

 

yes. your method is better(I am doing exactly that) and faster too, was just trying to say that if the router doesn't allow these kind of port mapping(external vs internal), Mesh can do it as well.

 

Ayla, now that you mention this (lightbulb), you are correct. The router does all the dirty work, this is the setup they use for one of my clients (I'm a CPA, not a tech).

And a note for those who care, if you do not get a static IP from your ISP, remember, you can always use a dynamic DNS service.

 

You are correct about DNS. I used IP addresses as an example for the basic port forwarding for RDP. Registering DNS is another step he would need to do if he doesn't have a static IP address from his ISP.

You could easily do this if you have DNS for RDP login.

joker.mooo.com:3389
joker.mooo.com:3390
joker.mooo.com:3391

instead of:
76.167.124.234:3389
76.167.124.234:3390
76.167.124.234:3391