Vista Home Premium can't RDP to Server2003 from Internet

W

wdueck

I have a laptop with Vista Home Premium that I can remote desktop to the 2003
server when on the same network using the private 192.168.x.x, but when I
take the laptop home and try to remote in using our public ip address, I get
the message "This computer can't connect to the remote computer". My XP
laptop can remote in just fine from the internet so the firewall / router is
working fine. Any suggestions?
Thanks,
-Wayne
 
W

wdueck

Yes, its changed from 3389 but the router is port forwarding to the server.
It works with my XP laptop.
-Wayne
 
W

wdueck

I tried to telnet but got the message that telnet was an unknown command or
something like that. Does Vista Home Premium have telnet and if so, how do
you access/turn it on?
Thanks for responding,
-Wayne
 
L

LeftFoot

Just to interject here -- no I don't think you'll find telnet included in
Vista. You could download PuTTY, an Open Source Telnet / SSH client.
 
L

LeftFoot

Sorry about the second post. I forgot to ask you to include a little more
information on your setup. We need to know just how you are connecting. Is
the Internet-facing IP address of your office router dynamically allocated or
fixed? If dynamic, are you using DynDNS or something like that?

You should walk through the settings for the WinXP and Vista systems
side-by-side to see if you can spot a variance between the two.
 
R

Robert L. \(MS-MVP\)

L

LeftFoot

I didn't know that. I never wondered about it, either. When I didn't get a
response from a telnet command I didn't bother looking any further, figuring
that it was good riddance.

But it is very nice to know this, especially for situations where
installation of an Open Source (or other third party) telnet substitute isn't
going to be accepted.
 
W

wdueck

The Internet-facing IP address is static. Our XP machines can rdp just fine.
I don't have the Vista laptop in front of me but will try to telnet to the
rdp port later today or tomorrow morning.
Thanks
 
W

wdueck

I can not telnet to the rdp port from the Vista PC but . . . . . I can't
telnet to the port from an XP PC that can remote into the server. I'm
confused. What is this telling me?
 
L

LeftFoot

I'm not getting notifications of replies here. Hmmm.

Anyway, I hope Robert L. will come back to you on this. The only things I
can think of that might cause what you're seeing is if:

a) your XP system and the server are using RDP over a different-than-normal
port and your Vista system isn't aware of it, or

b) your Vista remote desktop client is set to Do Not Connect in the dropdown
under Server Authentication on the Advanced tab of its configuration dialog.

Forgive me if none of this is applicable. I'm replying to this under very
pressing circumstances and didn't get much time to mull over the issues. I'll
try to get back to the thread in a while to give it more attention.
 
W

wdueck

I do have rdp configured to use a non standard port because its not a good
idea to have port 3389 open to the internet. In the rdp client, I put
IPaddress:port# and it works on the XP laptop.
To throw a wrench in the works, I troubleshot this issue about 5 weeks ago
and gave up. The customer called me the following day and said "its working".
Hmmm....and then 4 weeks later she calls up and says, "its not working again"
No new updates or config changes were made to make it start working or stop
working.
They have since bought a second laptop with Vista and it is doing the same
thing. It can connect rdp using 192.168.xx.xx:xxxx but not 66.224.xx.xx:xxxx.
I don't know Vista at all. Is there some kind of security setting for rdp on
the public network?

I'll check later today for the setting you suggested in b) of your last post.
Thanks for your reply,
Wayne
 
W

wdueck

The Vista remote desktop client is set to "Always connect, even if
authentication fails" in the dropdown under Server Authentication on the
Advanced tab of its configuration dialog.

-Wayne
 
L

LeftFoot

Yes, the reason I asked about the port and about the RDP client setting on
the advanced tab was because those were the first two most obvious
possibilities I could think of that might explain the behavior.

Obviously, it's tempting to think that it's Vista that's making the
difference. I know for a fact that Vista has some peculiarities in its
implementation of DHCP and the TCP/IP stack that have caused problems for
some people -- particularly with some types of wireless routers.

But this whole story about the problem fixing itself for a period of four
weeks and then reverting to the trouble-prone behavior is a poser. You need a
better history, and it doesn't sound as you're going to get it, given the
situation.

I'm watching and waiting. Is there any other information that could be
pertinent?
 
W

wdueck

Well, I was on the phone with Microsoft Professional Services for about 3
hours yesterday. They could rdp to the server with XP but not with Vista Home
Premium. We sniffed the network and it appears that the Vista packets are not
reaching the server.
While on the phone with our ISP today, I had the tech try to rdp to our
server with his Vista Ultimate, and he could.
Just got off the phone with Microsoft. They gave me a link to an article -
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=932134
There is mention of a router compatibility tool about halfway down the page
that I am going to run tomorrow. I will send an update when I'm done.
Thanks for your reply
-Wayne
 
L

LeftFoot

I will be very interested to learn of your findings. As I said, I have seen
some routers, particularly wireless ones in my experience, which seemed to
elicit truly weird and inconsistent behaviors from Vista clients. I think
there is a growing consensus that this is due to some "ehancements" that
Microsoft has made in TCP/IP and DHCP in Vista.
 

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