Remote Desktop Connection on a LAN?

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Guest

I hate to start yet another thread over this networking nightmare, but I have
reached the end of my rope. I've read all the KB I can find on thi and the
dozens of other places that try to help with this abomination.

My 2 PC's (PC-A and PC-B) are on a LAN connected via RJ45 a LinkSYS router
connected to my cable modem. Both are running XP Pro. I have set up a
local LAN and I can share files and printers across this home network. I can
ping one from the other and I have tried to set up RDC so I can control one
PC from the other and vise-versa.

Here is my quandry: From PC-B I can RDC to PC-A and gain control of it.
Everything works fine. However, I cannot go from PC-A to access PC-B via
RDC. Whenever I try I quickly get an error message "The connection was ended
because of a network error. Please try connecting to the remote computer
again". As I write this note on PC-A, I am listening to music stored on PC-B
over the network.

1) I have setup the system properties to enable the remote desktop on both
PC's
2) I have windows firewall running one each PC and both have RDC setup in
the exceptions list.
3) When I run "netstat -a" from PC-A I do not see it listening on port
3389, but when I do it from PC-B I do see it listening.
4) I disabled the requirement to have a non-null password in the registry
of both machines, but I still tried to RDC from an admin account that has a
password. Still nothing from PC-A to PC-B.
5) The Linksys router is set up to forward port 3389 to both PC-A and PC-B
(whatever this means...I don't understand port forwarding from behind the
router). I don't know if this is even possible

6) And here's one more tidbit: From PC-A I can bring up a VPN and RDC to
my PC at work. In this case RDC on PC-A works great. When I run netstat
while this is hapenning, I do not see PC-A listening on 3389.

Any ideas??
 
I hate to start yet another thread over this networking nightmare, but I have
reached the end of my rope. I've read all the KB I can find on thi and the
dozens of other places that try to help with this abomination.

My 2 PC's (PC-A and PC-B) are on a LAN connected via RJ45 a LinkSYS router
connected to my cable modem. Both are running XP Pro. I have set up a
local LAN and I can share files and printers across this home network. I can
ping one from the other and I have tried to set up RDC so I can control one
PC from the other and vise-versa.

Here is my quandry: From PC-B I can RDC to PC-A and gain control of it.
Everything works fine. However, I cannot go from PC-A to access PC-B via
RDC. Whenever I try I quickly get an error message "The connection was ended
because of a network error. Please try connecting to the remote computer
again". As I write this note on PC-A, I am listening to music stored on PC-B
over the network.

1) I have setup the system properties to enable the remote desktop on both
PC's
2) I have windows firewall running one each PC and both have RDC setup in
the exceptions list.
3) When I run "netstat -a" from PC-A I do not see it listening on port
3389, but when I do it from PC-B I do see it listening.
4) I disabled the requirement to have a non-null password in the registry
of both machines, but I still tried to RDC from an admin account that has a
password. Still nothing from PC-A to PC-B.
5) The Linksys router is set up to forward port 3389 to both PC-A and PC-B
(whatever this means...I don't understand port forwarding from behind the
router). I don't know if this is even possible

6) And here's one more tidbit: From PC-A I can bring up a VPN and RDC to
my PC at work. In this case RDC on PC-A works great. When I run netstat
while this is hapenning, I do not see PC-A listening on 3389.

Any ideas??
Click to expand...

Both computers must have users with passwords, don't use NULL passwords.

Both computer can and should have the windows firewall disabled while
testing, since you are behind a NAT Router this should not expose you to
any problems.

RD should already be setup to permit connections and specify users -
remember users should have passwords.

Network settings - see if you can MAP a share from both computer to each
other, if you can't map a share then you have network problems. The
share will require that each computer have the same user/password on
BOTH machines matching.
 
Both computers must have users with passwords, don't use NULL passwords.

Both computer can and should have the windows firewall disabled while
testing, since you are behind a NAT Router this should not expose you to
any problems.

RD should already be setup to permit connections and specify users -
remember users should have passwords.

Network settings - see if you can MAP a share from both computer to each
other, if you can't map a share then you have network problems. The
share will require that each computer have the same user/password on
BOTH machines matching.
Click to expand...

Port Forward would not be used since both systems are "in back off" the
Linksys router. However, it does not "seem" possible to port forward 3389 to
two different system at the same time.

I need to ask this: are both systems running Windows XP Professional??
Windows XP Home has never been developed to host RD connections to connect to
it . Home can request a RD connection to a XP Pro system (client).
 
Yves,

Thanks for the reply. I could not understnd how a port could be forwarded
to two addresses, but I was running out of ideas and tried it. I think you
are right that I don't need to do anything with the router, but a lot of the
instructions I came across mentioned doing this (probably because they were
instructions for access outside the firewall).

Both systems are running XP Pro - SP2
 
Leythos,

I set up a user "Remote" on both machines. Both with admin rights and both
with the same password. Still no luck trying to access the other PC when
logged in as "Remote". In KB article 303846 I did find instructions on how
to disable the requirement for non-null passwords. Tried that on both PC's
and still no luck.

I tried disabling the firewall on both PC's and it didn't change the
behavior. Both firewall exception lists are the same even when they are
enabled.

I can access shares from both PC's. However I did not try this from the
"Remote" account. I'll try that tonight.

In the RD setup, I never entered a list of users who can use RD. From one
PC I can never browse to the other PC to select users. And I did not enter
any "allowed users". Is this something I have to do?

The perplexing thing is that I can use the RD client from "A" to control my
PC at work behind a VPN, but I cannot use it to access "B" in the same local
LAN.

Apparently I'm not the only one having this problem. I've heard from 3
people already that want to know the solution should I ever find one.
 
Yves,

Thanks for the reply. I could not understnd how a port could be forwarded
to two addresses, but I was running out of ideas and tried it. I think you
are right that I don't need to do anything with the router, but a lot of the
instructions I came across mentioned doing this (probably because they were
instructions for access outside the firewall).

Both systems are running XP Pro - SP2
Click to expand...

XP with SP2 installed now have a built-in firewall. You need to configure
RDP/Remote Desktop as an exception on BOTH systems, in each of their own
firewall settings.
 
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