RDP Connections failing over VPN - most of the time!

[Guest]

I have 2 XP SP2 laptops connecting to same WLAN (always OK)

I connect to several sites using Draytek VPN to Draytek Vigor routers
(Draytek VPN is just a front-end to Windows VPN client)

1 Laptop will RDP to all sites OK, the other consistently fails to all but
one site

The VPN seems OK as I can connect via Internet Explorer (over the VPN) to
all sites from both laptops - just RDP fails on the 1 laptop
I get as far as the screen going black as if it's going to connect, but then
get the message:
Remote Desktop Disconnected.... The connection to the remote computer was
lost, possibly due to network connectivity problems...

I've tried it on a wired LAN, installed latest version of Remote Desktop
etc. but no change!

It all used to work fine & very occasionally, it does now (once in 2 weeks!)
It started a few weeks ago when Remote Desktop started to fail to these
sites, but Terminal Services Client would work - now nothing works!

There is nothing in event logs at either end!

Can anybody help - it's driving me nuts (I have only borrowed the laptop
that works & have to give it back!)

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I have 2 XP SP2 laptops connecting to same WLAN (always OK)

I connect to several sites using Draytek VPN to Draytek Vigor routers
(Draytek VPN is just a front-end to Windows VPN client)

1 Laptop will RDP to all sites OK, the other consistently fails to all but
one site

The VPN seems OK as I can connect via Internet Explorer (over the VPN) to
all sites from both laptops - just RDP fails on the 1 laptop
I get as far as the screen going black as if it's going to connect, but then
get the message:
Remote Desktop Disconnected.... The connection to the remote computer was
lost, possibly due to network connectivity problems...

I've tried it on a wired LAN, installed latest version of Remote Desktop
etc. but no change!

It all used to work fine & very occasionally, it does now (once in 2 weeks!)
It started a few weeks ago when Remote Desktop started to fail to these
sites, but Terminal Services Client would work - now nothing works!

There is nothing in event logs at either end!

Can anybody help - it's driving me nuts (I have only borrowed the laptop
that works & have to give it back!)

As a first step you should test your Remote Desktop connection
from inside the host's LAN rather than from the outside. This
will remove the VPN from the equation.

 

[Guest]

Thanks - I will try that when I next go on site, but it's up to 100 miles & I
would like to fix it from here if poss!
As I said, it's really just a WinXP VPN to a Vigor router
1 PC works fine & the other bombs out - both using the same VPN

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

If both PCs are at the same site then you can start a Remote
Desktop session on the one that works, then test RDP from
this first PC to the one that causes problems. This is equivalent
to peforming the test on site.

 

[Guest]

The nearest I can get for now is to configure port-forwarding on the router
for RDP at the remote end
I did this & the 'good' laptop connected via RDP OK but the 'bad' laptop
still failed - this was not using the VPN, just RDP to the public address of
the router

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I assume you used different port numbers in order to reach
different PCs at the far end.

Your report suggests that your problem is not related to VPN
but to something on the problem PC itself.

 

[Guest]

Yes, both laptops are at the same site (at home) & I am connecting to servers
at remote sites
They both connect OK, every time, over VPN at 1 particular site to a server
running SBS 2003R1 & the 'good' laptop connects every time to 2 other servers
(at different remote sites) running SBS2000 & SBS2003R2 - again over VPN, or
via port-forwarding. The 'bad' laptop won't connect to either of the latter 2
sites (I get the black screen as though it has made the initial connection,
but just hangs there & gives me the error)
So yes, I believe the problem is on the laptop, but I cannot see any reason
why it should work over VPN & port-forwarding to one server, but not the
others
I can RDP between the 2 laptops (on the same LAN) no problem
Cheers!

 

[Guest]

In the end, I turned off Bitmap Caching & it seems OK now!
Thanks for your help

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Thanks for the feedback.

In the end, I turned off Bitmap Caching & it seems OK now!
Thanks for your help