Problems setting up a remote desktop connection

[MrWhitey]

I'm trying to connect to a machine that has Win7 Ultimate on it from my laptop that has WinXP Pro. I keep getting an error message when I try to find/connect regardless of what direction I try to make the connection from.

I have tried to enter my PC name & IP address in at this screen.

And then I get this error message.

I read something about port forwarding/listening to port 3389 but I have no clue what that means. I unchecked the "no exceptions" box in Windows Firewall as I was supposed to & I have no other firewall running.

 

[TimStitt]

Hi MrWhitey.

There are a few things to check
=SYSTEM PROPERTIES=
1. Right click on COMPUTER and select PROPERTIES
2. Click on Advanced System Settings
3. Click on the REMOTE Tab
4. In the Remote Desktop section, ensure that you are allowing connection

=ABOUT PORT FORWARDING=
I can't really give you steps because this is usually completed on your router and every model is different, this is just a guide.
RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) by default uses port 3389 for RDC (Remote Desktop Connection).
This port (think of it as a hole in the wall) must be open for the PC's to see each other.
This port has two openings (2 sides of the wall), external and internal. External is the world wide web, internal is inside your network.

As an added security measure you may want to port-forward the port, so that another port (let's say port 54321) externally is routed to 3389 internally. This is more secure because 3389 is a known hole in the wall. When you connect the name would then change to:
YOUR_EXTERNAL_IP_ADDRESS:54321
PortForward.com - Port Forwarding Guides Listed by Manufacturer and Model has port forwarding information for many routers/modems.

=YOUR FIREWALL=
Your PC should have a firewall (think of this as the wall around the inner-keep). Like the hardware firewall on the router, this software firewall needs a hole poked in it for remote desktop connectivity. These are usually called firewall exception rules. You will need to look up how this is done specifically on your firewall (they are all different).

A note of warning and you probably already know this. If you are enabling RDP you need to up your security more than that of your average user. Make sure that every PC and device on your network is secure and that the passwords are more than 8 characters long. Make sure also that the modem password is not the default (out of the box) password.

Good Luck

 

[MrWhitey]

THANKS TIM!

I just figured it out. I was entering in the wrong IP address, I was using the address for the laptop rather than the PC I was trying to access. I ASSumed they would be the same. If anyone else is having the same problem, I logged onto the computer I was trying to access & went to RUN, type CMD, & then in the command prompt I entered "ipconfig" & wrote down the IP address it gave me. Then I went back to my laptop & entered that IP for the computer name.

 

[TimStitt]

Great! Call closed and merry Christmas

 

[MrWhitey]

Well, it's back to giving me password issues. I was having issues with my password not being recognized when I'd have one set up so I created a new account & the issues went away. I went to connect to my computer remotely today & when I try to sign into my account on the host machine it says incorrect password. When I go over to the host machine & log in it accepts without a problem. Any ideas why it won't accept my password remotely but it will AT the machine???

 

[TimStitt]

Welcome back, there's a few things to check.
By the way, I am on holidays and have on my little XP laptap (my win7 is back at home), so my terminology may b e a little out.

1. Check that RDP is still enabled (ticked) and that port 3389 is still open on your firewalls
2. Open up your user profile and delete any settings for remote desktop in your credential manager
3. Ensure that the correct domain is used in the Remote Desktop login screen
4. Check that the log-in still has remote desktop permissions, i.e. no user or active directory changes.

Some testing stuff that might help us
1. Try to connect direct to console and see if this connects. You can do this by opening RDP through RUN
%systemroot%\system32\mstsc.exe /admin
Or opening the saved RDP file in notepad and adding the line
connect to console:i:1
saving. Note: Run this as admin
2. Check credentials - by attempting to connect the RDC with another log-in such as administrator

 

[chev65]

Perhaps this tutorial will help you spot any mistakes in set up you might have made.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3922-remote-desktop-connection-rdc-network.html?filter

 

[MrWhitey]

Welcome back, there's a few things to check.
By the way, I am on holidays and have on my little XP laptap (my win7 is back at home), so my terminology may b e a little out.

1. Check that RDP is still enabled (ticked) and that port 3389 is still open on your firewalls
2. Open up your user profile and delete any settings for remote desktop in your credential manager
3. Ensure that the correct domain is used in the Remote Desktop login screen
4. Check that the log-in still has remote desktop permissions, i.e. no user or active directory changes.

Some testing stuff that might help us
1. Try to connect direct to console and see if this connects. You can do this by opening RDP through RUN
%systemroot%\system32\mstsc.exe /admin
Or opening the saved RDP file in notepad and adding the line
connect to console:i:1
saving. Note: Run this as admin
2. Check credentials - by attempting to connect the RDC with another log-in such as administrator

This is really pissing me off!
I checked & re-checked everything above & opened RDC through RUN & it still says I have an incorrect password. I have tried to log on using all four users I have on the host machine including the Admin account. I even tried this on another PC in my house other than just my laptop & I get the same incorrect password crap. I even tried to create a brand new account on the host machine & still no dice. I'm completely lost here guys. I don't understand why it worked fine the other day once I had the right IP address & nothing has changed on the machine since then. I'm almost to the point I want to reinstall Win7 but I'm afraid I'll do that erasing everything & it still won't change anything.

 

[aem]

Wouldn't you using the account of the machine you are RDP to? not host.

 

[MrWhitey]

Wouldn't you using the account of the machine you are RDP to? not host.

You lost me?

 

[aem]

When you RDP to the destination machine, which username/password did you use?

 

[MrWhitey]

When you RDP to the destination machine, which username/password did you use?

I can get to the login screen on my host (Win7) machine from my laptop (XP Pro) without issues, then I click on a username & it asks for the password & I enter the password for the account on the host machine. No matter which of the 3-4 users I try it always says it's a wrong password when I know for a fact it isn't. I have also tried the password to my laptop (the machine I'm using to access the host) & that obviously doesn't work either.

I'm pretty much at the end of my rope with this issue so I'm considering re-installing Win7 & start from scratch. I haven't customized anything so it wouldn't be a loss since I've been waiting to get this issue worked out before I really customize things.

 

[aem]

The host machine's password? The machine you are doing the RDP from?

Authentication is with username and password from the remote machine, not host machine (unless the machines are on a domain with domain accounts, and enough permissions)

 

[MrWhitey]

The host machine's password? The machine you are doing the RDP from?

Authentication is with username and password from the remote machine, not host machine (unless the machines are on a domain with domain accounts, and enough permissions)

I just changed the password for both machines to the same four letter word & it still says it's wrong.

The way I've always understood it was that you enter the password for the machine you are trying to access/connect TO. Changing the password on both machines to the same thing should eliminate that as being the issue.

 

[aem]

lol, yes indeed.

Have you tried putting the computername in from of the username. ie computername\username.?

 

[MrWhitey]

lol, yes indeed.

Have you tried putting the computername in from of the username. ie computername\username.?

Yep, it gets me to the login screen for whatever user I enter & then denies my password when entered.

 

[aem]

Lets check your Xp machine with this

Windows XP: Get Started Using Remote Desktop

 

[MrWhitey]

Lets check your Xp machine with this

Windows XP: Get Started Using Remote Desktop

LOL.
I was literally on that exact same page 20min ago. I've been over those steps so many times in the past week that I feel like I was the one who wrote that page. I think I'm going to wipe my C: drive clean & re-install Win7 on the new machine. It has to be the machine I'm trying to access since I'm having the same problem when trying to log on from both my laptop & my other PC. What would be the best way to go about wiping out the C: for a fresh install? I've never uninstalled an OS before. Do I just go to My Computer & right click on the C: & reformat???

 

[aem]

Well, im not sure it's the OS or machine but if you want to do it, lets do it.

Best way to wipe out your C: is to install over the top of it (clean install with full format), or use fdisk, gpart, acronis disk director, parition magic..the list goes on.

 

[MrWhitey]

I just figured it out!!!
Such an easy solution & now I'm going to go take an aptitude test tomorrow to confirm whether or not I'm legally mentally handicapped. The keyboard I'm running on my Win7 (host) machine is styled after a laptop keyboard with a touchpad & no 10-key. So there's a numlock to use the 10-key which falls over the "U, I, O, P, J, K, L & M" keys. Every password I created during attempts to get this to work contained at least one of those letter & by default the numlock key must be on at login screens so I was getting random numbers in my passwords. There's no real way to tell because for security reasons when you enter your password you just get bulletpoints rather than characters. So basically I changed the password to "fast" which doesn't contain one of those letters & POOF, it worked. I did re-install Win7 with no luck & that's when this came to me.

THANKS FOR YOUR EFFORTS AEM & ANYONE ELSE THAT ATTEMPTED TO HELP ME BE LESS DENSE.