Taskill ERROR: The RPC server is unavailable.

[Albert]

Im getting the "ERROR: The RPC server is unavailable" when I execute the
following command over a network.

c:\>taskkill /s [computername] /im outlook.exe /f

The aim being to shut down Outlook on a remote PC so my backup script can
copy the outlook.pst file

Both PC are Windows XP Service Pack 2 windows firewall is enabled.

I found the 2 Service/s RPC and RPC locator, RPC was already started,
starting RPC locator made no difference.

I used to be able to execute this command without any problem prior to
Service Pack 2.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.
Al

 

[OShah]

Im getting the "ERROR: The RPC server is unavailable" when I execute the
following command over a network.

c:\>taskkill /s [computername] /im outlook.exe /f

The aim being to shut down Outlook on a remote PC so my backup script can
copy the outlook.pst file

Both PC are Windows XP Service Pack 2 windows firewall is enabled.

I found the 2 Service/s RPC and RPC locator, RPC was already started,
starting RPC locator made no difference.

I used to be able to execute this command without any problem prior to
Service Pack 2.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.
Al

Doesn't taskkill.exe use WMI to connect to the remote machine? Try disabling
the windows firewall to see if that helps.



If it does help: Open up the RPC/DCOM ports (but just for the remote
computer) in the firewall.



--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
oshah [shexec32]
Control Panel -> System -> Advanced -> Error Reporting -> Choose Programs
-> Do not report errors for these programs:

Acrobat.exe
waol.exe

------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[morgrum]

Using Taskkill Through XP Firewall

The only advice I've found on the net is to disable the XP firewall in order to allow the use of taskkill across a Windows network. This is not an acceptable answer. The correct answer is to create a firewall exception for the following ports (I figured this out using Windows Firewall's security log, btw):

TCP 135
TCP 4168
UDP 9256

You're welcome.