Reconnecting to disconnected RD session

[Dave Brittain]

I connected via my laptop (W2K Pro) to my home computer
(WinXP Pro, w/RD enabled), over a dialup connection to
internet. The line dropped on the modem. I re-dialed,
and when I tried to re-establish my RD connection, I get
this message...

TitleBar Caption: Logon Connect Failed

Message Text:

Error connecting to existing session for <username
omitted> (Id1)

The Specified session cannot be found.

A new session will be created.

[OK]

When I click [OK] the screen restores back to my local
computer's screen. No "new session" is created.

I'm sure a MS tech will need to fix this and post a new
version of the RD client for W2K Pro (I also tried it from
a Win98 machine, so the RD client for W98 seems to have
the same problem). I hope this doesn't require any
updates to the RD remote machine, since I can't get to it.

Suggestion for new RD feature: Enable the disabled
[Shutdown...] button on the WinXP login form (shown when
[Options>>] is clicked), but only proceed to the shutdown
options form if the user name & password are for a
legitimate user on the system. Then the "Shutdown" option
should only be enabled when the user is
an 'administrative' user. It would be nice if you did NOT
have to formally login to Win XP in order to restart the
remote machine.

 

[Bill Sanderson]

I'm not sure how long it is going to take you to get out of this one.

Here's a suggestion once you do, however:

Enable VPN access to the host machine.

With VPN working (test it out!) you should be able to remotely reboot the
machine via command-line commands even without being able to use Remote
Desktop--which should clear the situation.

I wouldn't hold my breath about updated clients. The latest client comes
with Windows Server 2003, and can be downloaded here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...fc-4b4a-40e7-a706-cde7e9b57e79&DisplayLang=en

I don't have any useful thoughts about your error--it is indeed a
catch-22--no additional session is allowed! I think I have seen this, but
long ago, and very infrequently. Maybe others will have better suggestions
for how to get out of this situation--I think forcing a reboot is what's
needed, and a VPN should allow you to do that even when Terminal Services is
effectively unavailable.