Session Limits

[Lance W. Grimes]

All:

Painful, re-occurring issue...

I have 6 users connecting to me here at the main office over the internet
using terminal services... All WinXP Clients, I am running Win2K server,
SP4... Client side 512 DSL, server side 1.5 cable connection.

Anyway, it seems after being idle for 15 minutes or so, users freeze and
have to be reset. I have enabled the system clock on the user profiles,
disabled screen savers, and made recommended registry hacks (keep alive).
Updated the NIC drivers and BIOS on the server. Enabled logging on the
router to check connection integrity, all is well. RDP-TCP properties have
no idle or active session limits set, nor does AD.

All this to no avail... There is no real consistency on the freezing...
Sometimes 15 minutes, sometimes 9... Happens to some users more than
others.

Does anyone have remote TS sessions that sit idle for more than 30 minutes,
and not freeze? Is this the nature of Win2K TS? Does Win2003 server offer
better connection integrity? Ideas anyone? What have I missed?

Help Please.

TIA,
Lance

 

[TP]

Sounds like a networking issue somewhere.

Try keeping a continuous ping going from one of
the clients to your server's router and from the
server to the client's router ip and see if there
are any hiccups or latency.

For example, I left my house Friday with a TS
connection to two different servers, came back
Monday morning and they were both still
connected.

Are all six clients coming from the same Internet
connection? I ask because if they were each
coming from different connections/ISPs, then I
would look to your server's router/connection.

Thanks.

-TP

 

[Lance W. Grimes]

TP:

How does one do this continuous Ping? Please advise.

Yes, all 6 clients are coming in over the same 512 DSL pipe. Are you using
WinXP on your client side, and Win2K on your server side? What are your
connection speeds? Did you do any registry hacks on the server side to help
stabilize your connection?

The real stress here is I am planning on moving these remote users to full
TS usage (office, file sharing, accounting and EAP access) and I can not
proceed until this connection issue stabilizes. Right now, they are on
their own domain, and using TS for accounting system access.

Enter this weirdness... I just upgraded to the 1.5 pipe on my end. Before
this, we were using a painfully slow 128 DSL connection. Although super
slow, I didn't have these connection issues. There were intermittent resets,
but not like now.

Thanks,
Lance

 

[TP]

At the command line:

ping <ipaddress> -t

The example I gave you was WinXP client and Win2k and
Win2003 servers. Bottom line from all the years I have
been using TS, you will not have the problems you are
experiencing if you have a solid connection between the
clients and server.

Since you just changed the connection on the server end,
I would focus on that first. If you like you could start by
doing a continuous ping from the server to your ISP's default
router address. This is the default router ip address that is
programmed into your router, and is logically on the ISP
end of your cable modem connection.

The ping times should be fairly consistent, and you should
not have any "request timed out".

If that test proves solid, try running the ping to your client's
router address and see how that goes.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks.

-TP

 

[Lance W. Grimes]

Thanks a million TP... I will let you know the results.
Lance

 

[Lance W. Grimes]

TP:

I performed the requested pings, and the MS times were all consistent, w/ no
"request time outs" present. I did what you suggested from both ends, and
the result was the same. I let it run for 10 minutes or so, and watched the
screen the entire time.

What else you got in your bag of tricks? Please tell me it isn't empty.

Lance

 

[TP]

Ok.

Are you able to keep an idle TS session connected
from within the same network as your server?

If the users remain active, are they able to maintain
a connection to the server for as long as they want?

What happens if you logon to the server from your
house? Are you still disconnected/freeze after you
have been idle for x minutes?

-TP

 

[Lance W. Grimes]

TP:

Internal connections to the TS are stable... I have seen some internal
intermittent resetting, but the majority of times, an internal connection
can remain idle all day, and still be active when needed.

Yes, if the remote users stay active, they seem to stay connected as long as
they want. It's when they sit idle for 15+ minutes they get reset.

When users log on from home, the same idle reset problems occur. Not many
do this, but the one girl in accounting at the remote location complains of
the same issues when working from home.

Incidentally, the entire town lost cable connectivity today, and i had to
move everyone back to the DSL connection. I am seeing idle times of 15+
minutes, and users are still connected.

L

 

[TP]

Are you using the same router for your DSL
connection, or a different one?

-TP

 

[Lance W. Grimes]

The Router for our cable connection is a Cisco 501 Pix, the router for our
DSL is a Lynksys BEFSR41.

 

[TP]

Take a look at the inactivity timeout settings in your
PIX configuration. Also, you may be hitting your
maximum active hosts limit. I don't have a 501, but
it looks like from the web that you can have a 10 or
50 host limit, depending on your license.

When your cable connection comes back up, use
your Linksys as the router instead for a few days
as a test. If you can't unhook the Linksys from
your DSL, consider buying another one for testing,
I think they are like $50 at Wal-Mart now.

Thanks.

-TP

 

[Lance W. Grimes]

TP:

I wanted to keep you updated on this since you spent so much time w/ me...

In the end, the Terminal Server was the issue... I took an old workstation
and loaded Win2k server, enabled terminal services, copied over the user
profiles, and all is well...

It still doesn't explain why when connected to the TS from inside the LAN,
this resetting didn't occur. Only the remote users had these resetting
issues. This reason alone kept me from replacing the server from the
beginning.

Anyway, I am going to buy win2003 server and reformat this beast...

Thanks again for all your help.

Best Regards,

Lance

 

[TP]

Thanks for the update.

Glad you were able to get it working.

-TP