RDC Clients cannot connect after TS reboot (because of incorrect IP)
We have a Windows 2003 Server 64-bit Terminal Server, which has been running fine for a few months. Last week the remote connection to the TS became patchy. Sometimes users could not connect or it would take several attempts or it would all seem very slow. Something just did not seem right and I couldn't pin it down. So I decided to do a restart of the TS.
Most of the users are intermittant users who use RDC just to check emails a few times a week. The other remote user (who uses the TS regularly) was in the office and connected locally to the Domain Controller and hasn't tried RDC until today.
I have just heard today that users can't connect to the TS. I have checked with several users and nobody has connected since the restart on Monday evening.
Our Domain Controller is SBS2003 Standard. I installed MS Exchange SP2 onto the SBS box on Monday, to get push-email working with our first iPhones. That part was successful. I restarted both servers on Monday evening. Everything appears to have started ok...I thought.
I can view the TS from a local workstation across the network and can access its network shares this way.
I have set up DHCP on the DC to reserve the IP addresses (2xNICs) for this TS. I have just discovered that both TS NICs have grabbed other random IPs from the Lease Pool, not the IPs that are reserved for them. This is obviously the cause of the problem...the IPs changed when the TS was rebooted and the router is now redirecting the RDC port to the wrong IP.
So, I could redirect the port in the router to one of the new IP addresses, but it will probably change again when it gets rebooted next time. That is the whole point of using reserved IPs!
I've checked the MAC addresses and they are both correct.
How can I sort this? Or should I configure the TS IPs manually and forget DHCP for theTS?
Meanwhile, the TS is not available, because I would rather sort this properly now rather than have to come back to it later.
Cheers,
Greg
Most of the users are intermittant users who use RDC just to check emails a few times a week. The other remote user (who uses the TS regularly) was in the office and connected locally to the Domain Controller and hasn't tried RDC until today.
I have just heard today that users can't connect to the TS. I have checked with several users and nobody has connected since the restart on Monday evening.
Our Domain Controller is SBS2003 Standard. I installed MS Exchange SP2 onto the SBS box on Monday, to get push-email working with our first iPhones. That part was successful. I restarted both servers on Monday evening. Everything appears to have started ok...I thought.
I can view the TS from a local workstation across the network and can access its network shares this way.
I have set up DHCP on the DC to reserve the IP addresses (2xNICs) for this TS. I have just discovered that both TS NICs have grabbed other random IPs from the Lease Pool, not the IPs that are reserved for them. This is obviously the cause of the problem...the IPs changed when the TS was rebooted and the router is now redirecting the RDC port to the wrong IP.
So, I could redirect the port in the router to one of the new IP addresses, but it will probably change again when it gets rebooted next time. That is the whole point of using reserved IPs!
I've checked the MAC addresses and they are both correct.
How can I sort this? Or should I configure the TS IPs manually and forget DHCP for theTS?
Meanwhile, the TS is not available, because I would rather sort this properly now rather than have to come back to it later.
Cheers,
Greg
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So you can have the points...the DHCP function in the modem/router was turned on. I thought I had turned that off ages ago, but maybe it was previously overlooked.
Anyway, your solution is exactly how I fixed it!
Thanks & cheers,
Greg