inoperative terminal services

[Guest]

we have a small dell server with windows 2000 server with a medical
application that we access with both wired fat clients (not using term
services) and wireless laptops using terminal services. this has worked
without any problems for two yrs. in the last week we have had increasing
difficulty signing on to the server using the terminal services using the
fat clients (as a test only ) or with the wireless units. a server restart
always seems to correct the problem but after a period of time no further
wireless units can connect, while the connected wireless units remain
connected without a problem. the system error log says "attempt to send a
message to a disconnected communication port" when this occurs. the terminal
services has all the buttons grayed out to stop or start the service in the
services listing even when the server is first restarted and is working .
we have 12 cal licenses and this hasn't been a previous problem . any ideas??
our vendor can't figure it out and may need to reinstall the entire
operating system and software. thanks --
jaustin

 

[Vera Noest [MVP]]

The fact that you cannot stop or restart the Terminal Server
service is by design, as documented here:

278657 - Terminal Services Cannot Be Manipulated
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=278657

I can't find any information on EventID 55, Source TermService,
though. It seems to indicate a network problem. When this happens,
can you still ping to the server?

 

[Guest]

the problem is at least temporarily solved as the vendor successfully
reinstalled the terminal services last night . the first time this was done
it worked briefly for 12 hrs or so. i will try the pinging next time. i did
note that if i stopped and restarted the terminal licensing that this caused
the problem as well a few days ago. when the microsoft engineer and our
vendor looked at the problem last night they could find no reason the
services weren't working thus the reinstall . thanks for your help

 

[Vera Noest [MVP]]

OK, I hope the reinstall solved the problem!
If not, feel free to repost here.

 

[Trevor Boyd]

I have a very similar problem.

I am running Terminal Services in Remote Administration mode on a Windows
2000 Server box. Until recently, I have had no problems connecting with the
Remote Desktop client built into Windows XP Professional.

A week or so ago, I started having problems connecting. When I try to
connect, my RD client fails with the error:
Remote Desktop Disconnected
The client could not establish a connection to the remote computer.
The most likely causes for this error are:
1) Remote connections might not be enabled at the remote computer.
2) The maximum number of connections was exceeded at the remote computer.
3) A network error occurred while establishing the connection.

None of these sound like very likely causes for the problem. I know that
Terminal Services is running, there are no other connections open (I've
checked in Terminal Services Management), and there are no network problems
between the clients and server. I can ping and connect via FTP, HTTP,
VNC... I've tried clients connecting both over the internet (through a
firewall with the appropriate ports opened) and over the LAN - neither work.

I've found that rebooting the server means a client can connect once, but
then all further connections are refused.

Each time a connection is refused, the System event log on the server logs
the following event:
Event Type: Error
Event Source: TermService
Event Category: None
Event ID: 55
Date: 09/11/2004
Time: 19:30:53
User: N/A
Computer: BOMBAY
Description:
Attempt to send a message to a disconnected communication port.

I can find no references to Event ID 55 anywhere. Does anyone have any
ideas?

Thanks in advance,

Trevor Boyd

Remove NO and SPAM from email address to reply.

 

[Eric Vaughn]

I just hung up with Microsoft Business Critical support to learn that
HotFix KB840987 as seen through Add/Remove programs is the cause of
this issue. At least on servers with Win2K SP4. MS had me remove
this HotFix using Change/Remove which immediately reboots the server
when you click Finish at the end of the uninstall process. We won't
really know if it fixed the issue for another day or so, but the tech
acknowledged that MS had an article on this exact issue in their
"internal KB". As of today that article has obviously not been
published to the public KB.

Eric Vaughn
www.amosdata.com
Providing Technology Solutions Since 1979

 

[Vera Noest [MVP]]

Thanks for reporting this, Eric!
It sounds very likely, there have been a number of similar posts
here, all after the release of the November Security update on
Windows Update.
Hope your TS behaves as it should now!

--
Vera Noest
MCSE, CCEA, Microsoft MVP - Terminal Server
http://hem.fyristorg.com/vera/IT
--- please respond in newsgroup, NOT by private email ---

(e-mail address removed) (Eric Vaughn) wrote on 18 nov 2004 in
microsoft.public.win2000.termserv.clients:

 

[scott]

Does anyone know if Microsoft has made a fix for this? I have
experienced the same problem, and removing KB840987 fixes the problem.
Any information would be helpful.

Thanks

 

[TechConSwe]

Very good news indeed!

I've searched for an answer a couple of weeks now, and thanks to you I
found it.

But it shouldn't be like this. How about the security leak the HotFix is
made for? If I remove the HotFix, the server is still vulnerable, right?
And what about MS having it in their internal KB but not in the public
one; they should shout it out loud by now!

Anyway, thank you very much. I'll keep my eyes open for the HotFix that
will correct the problem.

Regards,
Anders

 

[JarekN]

Looking for the same thing... my TS is not working right now....
uninstalling the patch didn't fix it...

 

[Vera Noest [MVP]]

Duplicate post.
There's both a hotfix and a workaround:

891577 - A Terminal Services session to a Windows 2000-based
computer stops responding if a user logs off after the user quits a
16-bit Windows program
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=891577