Strange Remote Desktop Problems

Before I start my tale of woe, I just want to point out that I've tried disabling the autotuning feature on Vista machines, but this doesn't fix the problem.

I have a relatively clean desktop machine. The desktop is a host for several virtual PCs, and runs Vista.

Remote desktop connections to the virtual PCs hosted on this desktop are solid, and the connections never drop. The virtual PCs run XP and 2003 Server.

But ... remote desktop connections to the desktop itself stall every 5 minutes. Sometimes the RDP connection drops entirely - other times it's just a matter of waiting 10-20 seconds for the connection to reconnect.

Each time this happens I lose a little more hair.

Even stranger - while a connection to the desktop is stalled, a connection to a virtual PC hosted on the desktop is still working great. I can even ping the host machine and see a 2ms response time.

This behavior leads me to believe that:

  1. There is nothing wrong with the RDP client
  2. There is nothing wrong in the networking stack or hardware of the desktop.
  3. There is something wrong with the terminal services service on Vista.

I'm hoping SP1 will fix the issue, and do so before I go bald.

Anyone else see similar behavior?

posted on Thursday, October 11, 2007 9:12 PM by scott

Comments

Thursday, October 11, 2007 7:55 PM by Sahil Malik

# re: Strange Remote Desktop Problems

After much thought, I have decided that the next time I repave my machine, I will not put windows twista on it.
Thursday, October 11, 2007 11:44 PM by Dave

# re: Strange Remote Desktop Problems

Using Vista Ultimate to make RDP connections to XP Pro, Win2k Server, and Win2k3 Server machines on a daily basis, I haven't experienced the hanging problem. Could there be something on your/their/some network throttling your traffic?
Friday, October 12, 2007 6:56 AM by scott

# re: Strange Remote Desktop Problems

Dave: I don't seem to have any problems using Vista to connect to XP, 2003. It's when I use Vista to connect to another Vista machine that things go wierd on me.

I'm still experimenting to see if I can make this go away.

I think I need a new machine with hardware blessed by Vista, unfortunately.
Friday, October 12, 2007 7:14 AM by Geoff Van Brunt

# re: Strange Remote Desktop Problems

I make daily connection to/from Vista/XP/Server 2003/Server 2000 computers. I've never had any problems with Vista. HOWEVER, all the clients have been updated to Remote Desktop Client 6.0. Have you done that?
Friday, October 12, 2007 10:40 AM by scott

# re: Strange Remote Desktop Problems

Geoff:

Yes, the client machine is a Dell laptop running Vista.

I'm beginning to suspect it may be a driver issue on the laptop - something about the newer RDP version (packet size - gnomes - something) might be causing it to toss?
Friday, October 12, 2007 10:33 PM by Rick Strahl

# re: Strange Remote Desktop Problems

Shot in the dark: Have you tried turning off IP V6 on your network card? I've seen some odd behavior on some machines with it enabled...

Saturday, October 13, 2007 9:17 PM by scott

# re: Strange Remote Desktop Problems

I gave it a shot but - no luck :/
Monday, October 15, 2007 6:18 PM by K. Scott Allen

# My RDP Problem Appears to be the Windows Vista Firewall

My desktop computer continued to deteriorate this weekend. Not only could I not maintain an RDP connection...
Monday, October 15, 2007 6:28 PM by BusinessRx Reading List

# My RDP Problem Appears to be the Windows Vista Firewall

My desktop computer continued to deteriorate this weekend. Not only could I not maintain an RDP connection
Monday, October 22, 2007 3:12 AM by Philip the Duck

# re: Strange Remote Desktop Problems

Scott - I'm seeing *exactly* the same behaviour connecting to Windows 2008 Server (I'm running this build: 6001.16659.070916-1443_amd64fre_Server_en-us-KR1SXFRE_EN_DVD.iso on a physical AMD x64 machine, not in a VM).

I have firewall active, with RDP allowed from local subnet only.

After 5-10 mins, the MSTSC window freezes (doesn't say "lost connection" - just freezes) but if I close it I can immediately reconnect just fine.

I use the latest MSTSC (version 6.0.6000.16459, the one with the non-working NLA feature - grr!), and it works flawlessly connecting to the Win2000, Win2003, and WinXP machines I use it with.

The problem only occurs when connecting to 2008 Server (I don't run Vista - I've tried several times to use it, but it just keeps letting me down - much like WinME did back in the day - so I've now removed it from all my client machines and gone back to XP - just like I had to go back to Win98SE back in the day - I had higher hopes for 2008 Server, but so far I'm feeling like it's just Vista with extra features; not liking it much at all).

Hope this helps.
Monday, October 22, 2007 3:19 AM by Philip the Duck

# re: Strange Remote Desktop Problems

Scott - FYI, I'm also seeing this problem with 2008 Server: Vista running out of memory copying files - http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/16/1658230&from=rss

When I set up 2008 Standard I left it copying about 20,000 files (mostly backup/archive data) from the old Win2003 partition to the new 2008 drive. I used Windows explorer to copy the files, mainly because I'm too lazy to type an XCOPY command line, and after a couple of hours (yes, *hours*!!), the copy animation had frozen and the machine was very slow to respond - swapping like crazy. After reboot, things seemed OK and I found only about 15,000 files had been copied - the other 5,000 or so then copied OK. Creepy stuff!!

Well, at least these problems prove 2008 Server and Vista really do share the same codebase!

Hopefully a fix for one will also help the other.
Thursday, November 01, 2007 8:57 AM by Dunkin'

# re: Strange Remote Desktop Problems

I've been having problems with RD and VPC07 on Vista Ultimate. The system runs w/out problems until I install VPC. After the install I have problems establishing RD connections from Vista to other systems on my network (XP and Server 2K3-R2) and windows explorer hangs for 20+ seconds. The network connection is still functional and the system works except for these two problems. They always appear together and are resolved at the same time.

It usually happens after a period of inactivity, 10-20 minutes, but lately it's been happening when the system boots. If I run TCPView when I'm experiencing the problem I see the RD connection is querying the second DNS server in the list and not the local networks DNS server which is in the #1 position.

After several installs I've narrowed the problem down to the VPC Virtual Machine Network Services driver and multiple DNS servers. If I have multiple DNS servers in the list I can fix the problem immediately by disabling the VPC's Virtual Machine Network Services driver or I can avoid the problem altogether by removing the second and third DNS server entries.


I don't experience the RD/Explorer hang problems on XP. It seems that Vista's new network stack and VPC Virtual Machine Drivers don't play well together.

I've also experienced a similar problem with Server 2K3-R2 running exchange in a instance of VPC. If I have multiple DNS servers in the address list then the Exchange Management Shell cannot find the AD server. If I remove the additional DNS servers the problem disappears.

FYI. This is a new Dell system that came with Vista HP installed. The first DNS server entry is the network's local DNS/AD server and the second and third entries where for Open DNS.

I hope this helps someone.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007 6:01 PM by Community Blogs

# My RDP Problem Appears to be the Windows Vista Firewall

My desktop computer continued to deteriorate this weekend. Not only could I not maintain an RDP connection