Windows 2000 Application Terminal Server XP Pro RDP Client Problem

what is the error message?

Like Yan, I'd also need more information about your particular error. I have been able to successfully use XP with the RDP client with a number of Windows 2000 servers, both in Application Server and Remote Administration modes.

I did have one thought: How are you trying to connect to the terminal server (by IP address or by name)? If it's by IP address, then it should be pretty simple. If it's by name, then you are able to ping the terminal server, right? I've never tried it (since I haven't had to), but you should be able to install the Windows 2000 TS client on one of your XP machines as a test. If you can connect then from the XP machine, there may be some sort of a problem with the client.

If there is a problem with the client side of things, it seems odd that they would all be affected, unless you were using some sort of imaging tool to build the XP machines. That still shouldn't preclude this from working by itself; I've also successfully used imaging software, and not had these sort of problems. If indeed the problem is with the RDP client itself, and it's bad on all of the XP machines (or at least the ones that were imaged), my suspicion would be that there's some sort of a problem with your image, rather than the tool itself.

Error Message:
The client could not establish a connection to the remote computer. Most likely causes... 1. Remote connection may not be enabled at remote computer 2. Maximum number of connections were exceeded at remote computer 3. A network error occured when establishing connection to remote computer.

quail:

I've tried both and I get good ping back by name and IP. We originally installed the Win2K TSclients on the 2 XP Pro Clients we're working with and the TS Client Connection Manager didn't even start. No error message even. I don't think an imaging tool is in use by my customer. I asked them to uninstall the TS Client software, but I'm not sure if they rebooted afterward. If you've been successful getting the two platforms to talk then I need to keep after this until a resolution is found.

Thanks for your help!
Brian

Hmm would the XP firewall be on? That could be your problem.. Disable it if it's on.. no danger if you are in a private lan..

Brian,

As someone else who takes care of outside customers, I know what they can sometimes do to their machines. I realize that the odds of them both having the same issue isn't great, but is it possible that there's something wrong with XP on those machines? Even if there wasn't any sort of an image used, if there similar/identical machines, they could both have the same image installed at the factory, and that could be corrupt. Any chance of getting a different machine in there just for troubleshooting purposes?

I would agree that the XP firewall could be at fault, but it shouldn't be interfering as much with an outbound connection, such as you're trying to establish, so I'm only partially believing that could be the problem. However, it's definitely still worth trying.

Good luck,

Quail99

XP Firewall option must have been disabled in Group Policy or Registry as it is grayed out and can't be selected.

I suspect that there is an image load involved at some level, I just don't know yet. I will work my way up the PC support chain at the customer level.

I'll see about trying a 3rd XP PC that we didn't load the old TS Client on to see if the problem persists.

Thanks for your help!

One more thought - if XP firewall is disabled, is it maybe because there's some other sort of software-based firewall on the system that disabled it? If so, I'd look into that other firewall as a potential problem source. One caveat though: even when I've removed a software-based firewall that seemed to be causing me problems in the past, the problem has usually not gone away until I've gone to more drastic measures, like reinstalling TCP/IP, or in some cases, rebuilding the machine. I don't know why, but I think the ones I've dealt with (mostly stuff like ZoneAlarm, although I've also had similar issues with things like the Cisco Security Agent and third-party VPN clients, as well) must dig their hooks into the registry deeper than their uninstall removes, and we're thus left with remnants to cause us problems.

Quail99

This is a US Govt. Facility so I don't think any of the critical configurations are untested, but you never know...

Don't think there are any software based firewalls either.

I'll try my laptop as you suggest and see if that will help me narrow down the possible problems.

Thanks for all the great suggestions,
Brian

The problem had something to do with the ACL in the router for our subnet. Once CommOps did whatever they did to fix me up I was able to access TS without any problem. Quail99's suggestion of using my own laptop to test the TS access led to my being able to isolate the issue as well as give me a resource I didn't realize I had. I've used my own laptop several times since to do admin and run our system remotely. Very nice!

Thanks for all the help!
Brian