RD client cannot reconnect to disconnected TS session

[Bob Jackson]

Hi. I'm hoping someone can help with this nagging issue. It started
with one user (of 30 total) about 2 months ago. He would get kicked off
his Remote Desktop session (due to line problems or whatever), and when
he'd try to log back in - from the same machine, just minutes later -
the connection would be made to the remote server, he'd enter his
credentials, and he'd be immediately disconnected. If I, the network
admin, try to log in as him from wherever I am taking his support call,
I can't log in as him, either; but I can log on as anyone else with no
problem. Only after disconnecting his session through TS Manager can
anyone log back on as him. It's like he can't get back into that
specific disconnected session. I used to be able to log on as myself,
"Connect" to his disconnected session through TS Manager, then
disconnect, and he could re-connect to that session again. That no
longer works. Now the only solution is to kill that session and let him
create a new one. Of course, he loses anything he had open before his
link was dropped.

Now the problem is spreading, and I have a total of 3 users who are
experiencing this. I have found a few references to this in Usenet, but
most of the suggestions indicate the writers don't really understand the
circumstances of the problem.

To summarize: A user logs onto a Win2003 Standard Ed terminal server
from a remote location, using either Win2K RDP client or the built-in
RDP client in XP Pro SP1. His physical connection to that server is
dropped. He tries to log back on, gets connected to the server, but is
booted out if he logs on as himself. If he logs on as a different user,
he can get connected. We cannot reproduce this problem at will, by
disconnecting his session and trying to log back in. When we try this,
it works just fine. Also, this has happened different times throughout
the day and the week/weekend.

I'd really appreciate any help offered.

Thanks -

Bob

 

[Vera Noest [MVP]]

Mmmm, do you have a policy in place that allows users only one
connection at a time?
When this happens, what is the status of the existing connection
in TS Manager? Disconnected or Active/Idle?
Maybe the server hasn't detected yet that the session is
disconnected when the users tries to reconnect?

You could try to enable KeepAlives, which could either stabilize
the connection, or at least make the server detect faster that the
sessions has been disconnected.

How to make your intermittent or flaky terminal services
connection a little more stable
http://terminal.servebeer.com/php/flaky_connections.php

 

[Bob Jackson]

I have keepalives enabled. There are no policies disallowing users
multiple simultaneous connections. The state of the appearingly damaged
session is Disconnected (after 20 x 5 sec of searching for the client).
Regardless of what the status of the lost session is, the user
should still be able to create a new session and log onto the domain.

Thanks for the ideas.

B