Remote Desktop Troubleshooting

Remote Desktop Connection

Since the release of Windows XP, one of my favorite features as always Remote Desktop. In case you are not familiar with Remote Desktop, it is a built-in feature of Windows that allows you to connect to your computer remotely using RDP protocol. For example, if you are at home and you need to access something from your computer at the office, you can use the Remote Desktop session to remotely control your office PC from home. Remote Desktop is built on the same technology, and using the same protocol with Windows Terminal Services.As useful as Remote Desktop is, can sometimes cause problems. While the sessions are usually solid, there are a number of things that can go wrong during the connection and authentication process. In this article, I will discuss some different troubleshooting techniques that you can use when there is an error with Remote Desktop.

The Remote Computer Could not be Found

Probably the most common problem that Remote Desktop Remote Desktop has trouble remote PC. There are several things that can cause this problem. Perhaps the most simple is the misspelling of the name of the remote computer. Therefore, if you are having trouble connecting to the remote computer, just take a second and make sure that you have spelled the name of the remote machine correctly.If the remote computer name spelled correctly, the problem may be DNS related. Remote Desktop uses RDP protocol, which piggybacks on top of TCP / IP. As you probably know, TCP / IP does not use the computer name as a mechanism to identify the system. The only reason that it is possible to specify the name of the computer is that the DNS server resolves computer names to IP addresses.If you find yourself having name resolution problems, there are several different things you can try. One option is to try to use the name of the remote system is the fully qualified domain as opposed to its NetBIOS name. It will not always help you to make the connection, but in certain situations will help.Another option is to specify the IP address of the remote machine rather than by name. In general, use IP addresses tend to be much more problematic than using a host name when connecting. Even the IP address can be a problem, though.The biggest factor that tends to make the link with the IP address problematic is the use of dynamic IP addresses. If you are using Remote Desktop to connect to the server, it may not be a problem, since most servers use static IP addresses. Workstation, on the other hand, almost always using a dynamic IP address. Therefore, the IP address of the workstation you are using today may tomorrow be assigned to different workstations. If the machine is not connected to a dynamic IP address to use, then you will practically have no choice but to set the hostname when connecting rather than setting the machine's IP address.Another factor that can make it difficult to connect to the host machine using the remote desktop firewall. Remote Desktop Protocol is designed to work on TCP port 3389. If you try to connect to a remote machine that sits behind a firewall, the firewall must allow traffic to flow through TCP port 3389. Of course blindly open this port on your firewall can pose a major security risk. You may choose not to turn on port forwarding so that incoming RDP traffic is forwarded to a specific IP address, rather than someone on the outside can try RDP connections to any machine on your network.On many networks, you'll have no choice but to use port forwarding for RDP traffic. Most networks use private IP addresses on their networks, and only the router using a public IP address. The router uses Network Address Translation (NAT) to proxy traffic between hosts on the Internet and private networks. If you are trying to establish RDP connections from all over the internet with a host that sits behind a NAT firewall, then you will have to configure the firewall to forward RDP traffic to the target host.Of course this assumes that you're trying to make a direct connection from outside the network perimeter. If you are connected to a private network using a VPN or dial-up connection, then you will have to worry about reconfiguring the NAT firewall, because your VPN or dial-up connections provide you with a connection to the private network. Remote access server that is used to build a VPN or dial-up connection is almost always sitting behind a firewall, and you must ensure that your firewall allows RDP traffic flowing to a private network.While I'm on the subject of firewalls, I want to point out that Windows XP SP2 and Windows Vista both contain a built-in firewall. If you try to connect to a machine running an operating system, you must make sure that the Windows firewall is configured to allow RDP traffic. 

Authentication Problems

 Building the initial connection is by far the most problematic aspect of the Remote Desktop, but there are other problems that you may encounter. Many users are surprised to see that they can attach to a remote PC and enter their credentials, but was stopped by the following error message:Local policy system does not permit you to logon interactively.Windows displays an error message if the user who is logging do not have the permission required to log in using the Remote Desktop Protocol. You can fix this problem by adding a user account to the Remote Desktop Users group or the local Administrators group. 

Data Encryption

 One of the most complex problems with Remote Desktop involves receiving the following error message:Due to an error in data encryption, this session will end. Please try connecting to the remote computer again.This error message is almost always associated with using outdated remote desktop (or terminal services) clients. When Microsoft released Windows 2000, they created an add-on called Pack Administration Tool. The Administration Tool Pack includes client components that can be used to build a remote session. Although the client is initially appear to be compatible with Windows XP, it is not. Using the Windows 2000 Administration Tools Pack version to establish a Remote Desktop session with Windows XP will usually trigger an error message that I mentioned above.Windows XP comes with the company's own Remote Desktop client that you can use to make a connection with another computer running Windows XP. If you prefer to use the Administration Tools Pack though, then you can always upgrade to version Server, Windows 2003 which you can download at: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304718
Although Remote Desktop usually works pretty well, sometimes it can be difficult to establish the initial connection. In this article, I have discussed some of the most common causes of problems Remote Desktop and some possible work arounds.