RDP to a win2003 server not working

[FatBoy]

Hi people,

We have a Windows 2003 sp2 standard edition server that we use for are ISA/websense setup. Yesterday we had to do a complete network shutdown and when you bought the servers back up we had a problems with this server (Websense and RDP wasn't working).

We ended up having to reinstalled websense and got that working but the RDP issue has remained I used to use the AD administrator tools Remote Desktops app to connect fine but now the screen just sits at "Connecting to server (servername)" so I tried the normal Remote Desktop Connection app and to start with and thought it would work as it asked for my username and password! But it then comes up with "Because of a protocol error, this session will be disconnected. Please try connecting to the remote computer again"

I found a couple of pages on the net that suggest it was a vista issue and even though this used to work fine I thought I would try a XP sp2 PC and to my amazement it worked fine

I have tried the following with no luck:
http://www.chicagotech.net/netforums...40a0713c3be7c6

Any idea's guys and gals?

[Domino]

So, if I read that right, this is you RDP'ing from a vista machine to a server...?

why not use VNC i could also ask?

[FatBoy]

Hi Domino YES you are correct and funny enough I forgot to mention, as we do use VNC here that I tried that as well even reinstalling VNC and it still doesn't work. Doesn't even bring up an error msg, just does nothing yet other server work fine as VNC and RDP

[Geoff]

Is the firewall up?

[Uraken]

check the eventlog please mate and let us know any relevant errors we'll take it from there.

[dan400007]

If its an ISA server remember that the RDP connections can be restricted by IP address in System Policy (ISA 2004).

Also what do you get back from a port scan?

[FatBoy]

Thanks guys I'm 90% sure it's got something to do with the firewall restrictions on ISA now. We had a consultant in the day b4 the downtime and he was changing move then we thought, still haven't worked out which rule to change yet but I'm getting there

[dan400007]

For connection via RDP to a ISA-2004 server you'll need to do the following:

Logon as a user with admin rights.
Open the ISA Management Console.
In the actions panel on the right select the tasks tab and Edit System Policy.
In the system policy head to Remote Management and Terminal Server.
Ensure the there is a tick to enable it and head over to the From tab.
Add or Edit a Computer Set and add the IP addresses that you want to use.
Restart the ISA servers to apply the new System Policy.

[FatBoy]

Thanks dan unfortunatley we have 2006 and I think it's a bit different...

It should be straight forward setting this rule up but I'm missing something...

[dan400007]

I havent even seen 2006 running so I can't say much, but I believe that you should still have a System Policy which will be processed before the firewall rules you set.

So even if you set a firewall policy to allow RDP to the ISA server but the System Policy is set to deny RDP then the System Policy is applied and the RDP Session is denied.

[Michael]

Are you using Remote Desktop 6 on your XP machines and 2003 servers? I'd highly recommend you do. Vista comes with the same version by default.

I'd also recommend checking Remote Desktop is correctly enabled on the System Properties > Remote tab.

Alternatively, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SYSTEM > CurrentControlSet > Control > Terminal Server. Look for fDenyTSConnections. Set it to a value of zero to enable Remote Desktop.

[FatBoy]

Thanks for all your help guys, we sorted it in the end.....

Not 100% sure what it was but we ended up having to set ISA back to default as if it was just installed and redo all the policies/firewall rules which seemed to sort it

Thanks again FB