Remote desktop connection

[RipperT]

I am trying to connect via RDC from a Vista Biz machine to a Vista Home
Premium machine. It is calling for my credentials and I can't find anything
that will tell me what my credentials are supposed to be. All I can find in
forums are questions about why Vista won't save them. I just want to know
what they are. Neither machine is password protected, so what should I
enter? The username for the Biz machine? The username for the Home machine?
Neither? What about the password? In any case, I am (of course) denied
access with a message saying "Your credentials did not work". Can someone
help?

rip

 

[Sooner Al [MVP]]

Vista Home Premium or Basic can not act as a Remote Desktop (RDC) host
computer only as a client.

You might look at VNC (I tend to recommend UltraVNC) as an alternative if
you want to remotely access/control a Vista Home or XP Home machine.

If your wanting to use RDC to access/control the Vista Business PC from the
Vista Home machine the login credentials (ie. user ID and password) used are
local to the Vista Business PC.

--

Al Jarvi (MS-MVP Windows – Desktop User Experience)

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights...
The MS-MVP Program - http://mvp.support.microsoft.com

 

[RalfG]

Only your Vista Business machine can host an RDC connection. You can call in
to the Business machine from the Home machine but not the other way around.

From RDC help:
You cannot use Remote Desktop Connection to connect to remote (host)
computers running the following editions of Windows Vista:

a.. Windows Vista Starter

b.. Windows Vista Home Basic

c.. Windows Vista Home Basic N

d.. Windows Vista Home Premium

Not any XP version either.

I haven't got any PCs I can test it with here but I believe the credentials
you need for RDC are your username and password on the host computer (the
one you are trying to connect to). Apparently they cannot be saved in Vista
Home so you'd have to enter them in for every new RDC session

 

[Sooner Al [MVP]]

No, you can use Vista or XP or other versions of Windows to remotely
access/control XP Pro and MCE machines.

As far as saving login credentials see this FAQ entry for possible help...

http://blogs.msdn.com/ts/archive/20...authentication-faq.aspx#_Saved_credentials_do

--

Al Jarvi (MS-MVP Windows – Desktop User Experience)

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights...
The MS-MVP Program - http://mvp.support.microsoft.com

 

[Grand_Poobah]

--->

No, you can use Vista or XP or other versions of Windows to remotely
access/control XP Pro and MCE machines.

As far as saving login credentials see this FAQ entry for possible help...

http://blogs.msdn.com/ts/archive/20...authentication-faq.aspx#_Saved_credentials_do

Really? How does one go about that? I have 2 Vista Home Premium
machines that absolutely will NOT connect to any of my three XP Pro
machines. No matter how much I tinker with the policies (on ANY
machine) I keep getting "*this* machine has a policy against remote
connections" when I try to connect after giving my username/password.
Of course, there is NO explanation of what they mean by "*this*" - is it
the Vista machine or the XP machine?

GP

 

[Sooner Al [MVP]]

I presume this is in a home work group environment?

What is the exact error message you get?

You are trying to log in to the XP Pro machine as an administrator or as a
member of the Remote Desktop Users Group?

Can you log in to an XP machine with RDC from another XP PC?

--

Al Jarvi (MS-MVP Windows – Desktop User Experience)

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights...
The MS-MVP Program - http://mvp.support.microsoft.com

 

[Grand_Poobah]

--->

I presume this is in a home work group environment?

What is the exact error message you get?

You are trying to log in to the XP Pro machine as an administrator or as a
member of the Remote Desktop Users Group?

Can you log in to an XP machine with RDC from another XP PC?

From Vista to XP Pro or from XP Pro to XP Pro I get this:

"The local polity of this system does not permit you to logon interactively"

and the app terminates.

There are, at any given time, 5 or 6 computers on the LAN. Mostly XP
Pro, but one Win2K and 2 Vista Home Premium SP1 (laptop & desktop). I
am blocked from wherever I try to wherever I connect by the same error.
I have created matching user accounts on all computers and made sure
that the "allow remote connections to/from this computer are all
checked. I have looked at GPEDIT.MSC until I start to squint but cannot
make it work.

It is not really a big deal, but I have one computer down in the
basement (it is XP Pro) that I would love to remote log in and do some
cleanup and whatnot as it is acting as my file server (it has a 500GB
internal and a 1TB USB drive on it). It is but a short walk downstairs,
but at my age and with the arthritis I have it is difficult.

GP

 

[Grand_Poobah]

I also appear to have hijacked the original purpose of this thread. I
am very sorry Rip and will create a new thread if you want me to. Our
problem may very well turn out to be virtually the same thing.

GP

 

[Sooner Al [MVP]]

Generally that means the login ID your trying to use either does not have a
password (required by design) or its a limited account that is not part of
the Remote Desktop Users Group or both.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/mobility/getstarted/enableremote.mspx

There is also this from former MVP Bill Sanderson...

http://tinyurl.com/cyeng2

I share your pain concerning your knees...

--

Al Jarvi (MS-MVP Windows – Desktop User Experience)

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights...
The MS-MVP Program - http://mvp.support.microsoft.com

 

[RipperT]

OK, this is all quite a bit to take in. I have 3 XP Pro, a Vista Home and a
Vista Biz to test this all out with, but I still don't know what my
credentials are supposed to be. I understand that they can't be saved in
certain versions, but what if I don't have any passwords on any of these
machines? Do I need to create passwords before I'll be able to use RDC?

Many thanks,

Ripper

 

[RalfG]

Quoting directly from Vista's Help files:

"You cannot use Remote Desktop Connection to connect to remote computers
running Windows XP"

Are you saying this isn't true? I would have some use for that here if it
can be done.

 

[RalfG]

Your credentials are the username and password for the account you sign in
to the Vista Business machine with. It is the only one that can be remotely
controlled from the second Vista machine. You can't control any of the
others from Vista with Remote Control, only Remote Assistance, which isn't
the same thing.

 

[Sooner Al [MVP]]

I remotely control my wife's XP Pro desktop from my Vista Ultimate laptop all
the time at home using Remote Desktop. There is nothing magic about the
process. The only thing you need to make sure of is that the Vista RDC client
is configured to *NOT* use NLA. See the two screen shots.

http://theillustratednetwork.mvps.org/RemoteDesktop/XP-RDC6-Advanced.JPG

--

Al Jarvi (MS-MVP Windows – Desktop User Experience)

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights...
The MS-MVP Program - http://mvp.support.microsoft.com

 

[RipperT]

what is NLA?

Rip

I remotely control my wife's XP Pro desktop from my Vista Ultimate laptop
all
the time at home using Remote Desktop. There is nothing magic about the
process. The only thing you need to make sure of is that the Vista RDC
client
is configured to *NOT* use NLA. See the two screen shots.

http://theillustratednetwork.mvps.org/RemoteDesktop/XP-RDC6-Advanced.JPG

--

Al Jarvi (MS-MVP Windows - Desktop User Experience)

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights...
The MS-MVP Program - http://mvp.support.microsoft.com

 

[Sooner Al [MVP]]

To illustrate...

PCA - XP Pro
PCB - XP Pro
PCC - XP Pro
PCD - Vista Business
PCE - Vista Home

You can use Remote Desktop [RDC] to remotely access/control PCA, PCB, PCC
and PCD. When you login to any of those you use a User ID and password that
is setup on those PCs individually.

So, say you have a users Joe and Bob on PCA, Joe and Sam PCB, Joe and Sally
on PCC and users Al and Jim on PCD.

Joe and Al are administrator accounts while Bob, Sam, Sally and Jim are
limited accounts. Only Bob is a member of the Remote Desktop Users Group on
PCA. Sam, Sally and Jim are not on PCB, PCC and PCD respectively.

You can then login to PCA, PCB or PCC from PCE (the Vista Home machine) or
any of the other PCs using Joe because he is an administrator account and
automatically a member of the Remote Desktop Users Group. You can login to
PCA using Bob's account. He is a limited user but also a member of the Remote
Desktop Users Group.

You can login to PCD using Al but no other account.

Make sense...

Beyond that you can save credentials from any version by initially saving,
editing or deleting and resavin credentials. Open the RDC connectoid and
click on Options.

http://theillustratednetwork.mvps.org/RemoteDesktop/XP-RDC6-General.JPG

Personally I setup my RDC hosts to always prompt for credentials as a
security precaution.

--

Al Jarvi (MS-MVP Windows – Desktop User Experience)

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights...
The MS-MVP Program - http://mvp.support.microsoft.com

 

[RipperT]

Well, you're certainly the guy to answer this then. I need to do this for a
client who prepares taxes.
She has a Vista Home Premium laptop in her office (laptop A)
and a new Dell Vista Home Premium in her daycare room in her basement
(laptop B) so she can work on taxes when the kids are asleep.

She needs to connect to her old office laptop (laptop A) using RDC from the
new Dell (laptop B). One of them needs to be upgraded to Vista Biz (at
least) to do it. Which one is it? I say laptop A. Yeah or nay?

Rip

To illustrate...

PCA - XP Pro
PCB - XP Pro
PCC - XP Pro
PCD - Vista Business
PCE - Vista Home

You can use Remote Desktop [RDC] to remotely access/control PCA, PCB, PCC
and PCD. When you login to any of those you use a User ID and password
that
is setup on those PCs individually.

So, say you have a users Joe and Bob on PCA, Joe and Sam PCB, Joe and
Sally
on PCC and users Al and Jim on PCD.

Joe and Al are administrator accounts while Bob, Sam, Sally and Jim are
limited accounts. Only Bob is a member of the Remote Desktop Users Group
on
PCA. Sam, Sally and Jim are not on PCB, PCC and PCD respectively.

You can then login to PCA, PCB or PCC from PCE (the Vista Home machine) or
any of the other PCs using Joe because he is an administrator account and
automatically a member of the Remote Desktop Users Group. You can login to
PCA using Bob's account. He is a limited user but also a member of the
Remote
Desktop Users Group.

You can login to PCD using Al but no other account.

Make sense...

Beyond that you can save credentials from any version by initially saving,
editing or deleting and resavin credentials. Open the RDC connectoid and
click on Options.

http://theillustratednetwork.mvps.org/RemoteDesktop/XP-RDC6-General.JPG

Personally I setup my RDC hosts to always prompt for credentials as a
security precaution.

--

Al Jarvi (MS-MVP Windows - Desktop User Experience)

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights...
The MS-MVP Program - http://mvp.support.microsoft.com

OK, this is all quite a bit to take in. I have 3 XP Pro, a Vista Home and
a
Vista Biz to test this all out with, but I still don't know what my
credentials are supposed to be. I understand that they can't be saved in
certain versions, but what if I don't have any passwords on any of these
machines? Do I need to create passwords before I'll be able to use RDC?

Many thanks,

Ripper

 

[Sooner Al [MVP]]

She can either upgrade Laptop A to Vista Ultimate or Business and use RDC
from Laptop B or she can try a program like UltraVNC (a free solution). Run
the UltraVNC server on Laptop A and the client viewer on Laptop B.

http://www.uvnc.com/

UltraVNC support forums...

http://forum.ultravnc.info/

In my experience VNC (any flavor) is slower than RDC but it just may work
for her. Remember that if she uses UltraVNC over the public internet that she
should use the encryption plug-in that is available.

--

Al Jarvi (MS-MVP Windows – Desktop User Experience)

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights...
The MS-MVP Program - http://mvp.support.microsoft.com

 

[Sooner Al [MVP]]

No that is not correct.

You can remotely access/control Vista Ultimate and Business machines with
Remote Desktop [RDC] from XP (Pro or Home or MCE).

You can remotely access/control XP Pro and MCE machines with RDC from Vista
(all versions), XP (all versions).

--

Al Jarvi (MS-MVP Windows – Desktop User Experience)

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights...
The MS-MVP Program - http://mvp.support.microsoft.com

 

[Sooner Al [MVP]]

NLA is Network Level Authentication. Its a security measure to mitigate what
is called man-in-the-middle attacks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man-in-the-middle_attack

XP SP2/SP3 now include RDC client software that takes advantage of this when
remotely accessing Vista Ultimate/Business host machines or Windows Server
2008 servers.

http://theillustratednetwork.mvps.org/RemoteDesktop/RDP6ConfigRecommendations.html#SP3

Note to remotely access an XP SP2/SP3 RDC host from Vista the Vista client
needs to disable NLA.

--

Al Jarvi (MS-MVP Windows – Desktop User Experience)

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights...
The MS-MVP Program - http://mvp.support.microsoft.com

 

[Sooner Al [MVP]]

That first sentence should read...

"You can remotely access/control Vista Ultimate and Business machines with
Remote Desktop [RDC] from Vista (all versions) and XP (Pro or Home or MCE). "

--

Al Jarvi (MS-MVP Windows – Desktop User Experience)

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights...
The MS-MVP Program - http://mvp.support.microsoft.com

No that is not correct.

You can remotely access/control Vista Ultimate and Business machines with
Remote Desktop [RDC] from XP (Pro or Home or MCE).

You can remotely access/control XP Pro and MCE machines with RDC from Vista
(all versions), XP (all versions).

--

Al Jarvi (MS-MVP Windows – Desktop User Experience)

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights...
The MS-MVP Program - http://mvp.support.microsoft.com

Your credentials are the username and password for the account you sign in
to the Vista Business machine with. It is the only one that can be remotely
controlled from the second Vista machine. You can't control any of the
others from Vista with Remote Control, only Remote Assistance, which isn't
the same thing.