Remote Desktop not working outside of network
If you have problems using Remote Desktop (RDP) with your Windows server, there are a couple of things you can fix. This troubleshooting guide aims to help rule out some of the most common causes for poor functionality. Show
Try UpCloud for free! Deploy a server in just 45 seconds Problems connectingEven while you might have trouble connecting using Windows Remote Desktop, you should always be able to log in to the web console at your UpCloud control panel, or by VNC connection, which settings are at your server details. Once you’ve connected to your server, through either of the methods mentioned above, you should be greeted by Windows lock screen. Sign into your server with an account that has administrator privileges to continue troubleshooting. If the connection shows something other than the lock screen, try if the server seems responsive. If it does not react to commands you might have to restart your server. Windows Remote Desktop settingsWhen you are logged in and the server seems to be working, but Remote Desktop still cannot connect, make sure a remote connection is allowed. The easiest way to get to the option is to open sysdm.cpl by searching for it on the start menu. Then move to the Remote tab. The Remote Desktop needs to allow connections from other computers for the feature to work. If your server was set to allow remote control with Network Level Authentication, make sure your own computer supports this or select to allow any connection. You can find more information about Network Level Authentication at Microsoft’s TechNet. While still at the RDP settings, check the allowed users by clicking the Select Users or by pressing S. All users with administrator access are automatically permitted to connect. All normal users must be added to this list. If you were trying to connect with user credentials that do not have admin rights, add the username you wish to connect with to the list of allowed users. FirewallThe Windows Firewall might be a little restrictive at times, for example, inbound ICMP protocol that ping connections use are disabled by default. Open the Windows Firewall with Advanced Security by searching for “firewall” in the start menu. Move to the Inbound Rules list and scroll down to Remote Desktop rules by pressing R. Windows Server 2008 should show two rules: Remote Desktop (TCP-In) and Remote Desktop - RemoteFX (TCP-In). Both of these would in most cases be enabled as long as the server still uses the standard 3389 TCP port for RDP connections. With 2012 Windows Servers the rules are split between Domain and Private, or Public profiles as well as TCP and UDP protocols, which translates to 4 separate Remote Desktop - User Mode rules, all of which would usually be enabled. Optionally while at the firewall settings, you may wish to enable ICMP for ping. Press F to find the rules, called File and Printer Sharing (Echo Request - ICMPv4 - In) and v6 for both IP versions. When you are certain that the Windows Firewall allows Remote Desktop connections, also check the server specific firewall settings at your UpCloud control panel. If you have set the default incoming rule to reject, remember to add a rule to permit traffic to the port Remoter Desktop server is listening to, 3389 by default. Find out more about the UpCloud firewall at the tutorials. Network connectionTest the internet connection on your server to make sure all your network resources work as they should. Start to ping out from your server. Open the Command Prompt and type cmd in the start menu search. Press enter then use the command below. ping 8.8.8.8If you enabled the echo requests from Windows Firewall, you can also attempt to ping your server from your own computer. Find the server’s public IP address on your UpCloud Control Panel under Network and Public Network. In case the internet connection does not seem to work, check your IP configuration on Command Prompt with the following command. ipconfigThe output will list all of your servers network connections, you should see 3 Ethernet adapters: the private network, public IPv4 and public IPv6. Check that these match with the network information in your server details under Network tab at your UpCloud control panel. If you see differences in the ipconfig output and your server network details page, check that all network interfaces are set to obtain the IP addresses automatically. To do this, search for Network Connections in the start menu and press enter to open it. Open the Properties for one of the Ethernet adapters, select Internet Protocol Version 6 or 4 and click on Properties button underneath. Make sure both radial buttons are set to automatic and press OK to save. Check through all of the network adapters on the server the same way. Slow connectionIf your Remote Desktop connection works, but feels slow or disconnects at times, you should try updating the network drivers. Download the latest Virtio drivers for Windows. After downloading the ISO file on your server, with Windows Server 2008 you will need to have a program like 7zip to unpack it. On Server 2012 you can simply mount the file as a disk. With the files available, open the Device Manager simply by searching for it by name in the start menu and pressing enter. Browse down to Network adapters, select each adapter one by one and run the Update Driver Software. In the update wizard, select Browse my computer for driver software, enter the driver location to the search field and press next. Note to keep the Include subfolders selected. If you were connected through Remote Desktop while updating the network drivers, you’ll probably get disconnected for a moment. The client should be able to restore the connection automatically after the drivers have been installed successfully. Port conflictIn some cases, it is possible that another application unintentionally uses the same port as Remote Desktop. This can cause connection issues or prevent Remote Desktop from connecting. Check the ports used by programs. Enter the command below on Command Prompt. netstat -a -oNetstat will print out a list of IP addresses and port numbers they use. Look for rows with your Remote Desktop port number (3389 by default) and check the program ID (PID) at the end of these lines. One PID will belong to the RDP service. If you see another PID that uses the same port, these will conflict with one another. To find out which programs the PIDs belongs to, use the following on Command Prompt. tasklist /svcRemote Desktop is listed as svchost.exe TermService, any other PID that uses the same port number causes issues. Change RDP port numberIf there is a port conflict, you can resolve it by changing the port used by one of the applications. Microsoft recommends to ideally change the port used by any other applications. If this is not possible, the port number Remote Desktop listen to can be changed with a couple of steps. Change the port number because it can also help to reduce intrusion attempts through obfuscation. This should not be your only method of security. To change the port number, you’ll first need to choose a free port not used by anything else on your server. Check the ports currently in use with netstat -a -o as described previously. The new port number can be anything from 1024 through 49151. Add the port number you’ve selected to the Windows Firewall Inbound rules by creating a new rule. In the New Inbound Rule Wizard, select the following
In the steps above the The port number for Remote Desktop was not designed to be changed, and the only way to do so is through editing registry. We highly recommend that you make a backup of your server before making any changes. Open the editor by searching for regedit in the start menu and pressing enter. Locate the following key in the registry file system. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlTerminal SErverWinStationsRDP-TcpPortNumberOpen the PortNumber registry key for edit, change the display to Decimal, enter your new port number and click OK to save the changes. For the changes to get applied, you will need to restart the RDP service. Open Services again by searching for it in the start menu and pressing enter to run the program. In the Services (Local) list, scroll down to find Remote Desktop Service, and restart it. A confirmation popup asks to restart other related services as well, click Yes to continue. You will get disconnected if you were using RDP to make these changes. Afterwards just reconnect to your new port by defining it in the Computer field on RDP connection. windows.server.example.com:34567With the new port, you should get uninterrupted reliable remote access. Getting helpIf you ran into deeper trouble or need help with something else, don’t hesitate to ask. When you contact UpCloud Support, try to explain the problem to the best of your ability. Include any steps you’ve already taken together with their results when you troubleshooted the issue. It will help our support team to solve your problem.
Remote Desktop Connection allows you to connect to Remote Desktop enabled computers for troubleshooting and other purposes. However, when trying to set up or establish a connection, you may encounter the "Remote Desktop can’t connect to the remote computer" error. This error can occur due to several reasons, mostly because of incorrect configuration and network issues. In this article, we look at the causes and some troubleshooting tips to help you get the RDC working again. What Causes the Remote Desktop Can’t Connect to the Remote Computer Error?This error may occur because of multiple reasons:
Now that you know the potential causes, let’s explore a few fixes you can follow to resolve this error on your PC. 1. Enable Remote Desktop on Your PCBefore attempting any fixes in this article, make sure that Remote Desktop is enabled on your PC. To enable Remote Desktop in Windows 10:
Follow our guide on how to enable and set up Remote Desktop Connection on Window 10 for further instructions. If the Remote Desktop is already enabled, then turn it off and restart your PC. As the PC restarts, turn on Remote Desktop again and check for any improvements. 2. Check Your Firewall RulesDepending on how you have configured your firewall’s policy, it may block some inbound and outbound communications. Check your Windows Defender Firewall settings to see if Remote Desktop Connection is blocked. If yes, add the app to the allowed list. To unblock Remote Desktop in Windows Defender Firewall:
3. Change Your Network ProfileIn Windows 10, you can choose to make your network profile Public or Private. On a Public network, Windows disables the network discovery feature to hide your computer from other computers. Try changing your network to Private to see if you can establish a connection with the network discovery feature enabled. Here’s how to do it.
4. Reset the Remote Desktop Connection CredentialsWhen you establish a new Remote Desktop connection for the first time, the client saves the credentials for quick login. However, corrupt or changed credentials can often result in the Remote Desktop can’t connect to the remote computer error. A quick reset of saved credentials can resolve this error. Here’s how to do it.
5. Add the Remote PC Address to the Hosts FileAnother way to resolve the Remote Desktop can’t connect to the remote PC error is to add the remote IP address to the hosts file in your PC. Windows’ Hosts file contains information to map a connection between an IP address and domain name. Manually adding the Remote PC address to the hosts file can help you resolve any issues that may occur because of domain name resolution. Here’s how to do it.
6. Enable RDP Protocol on a Remote Computer Using Registry EditorFor your Remote Desktop Connection to work, the RDP Protocol must be enabled in the Registry. Check the registry entry associated with the RDP Protocol to make sure it is enabled for your system. Here’s how to do it.
Close the registry editor and then launch Remote Desktop Connection to see if the error is resolved. If the issue persists, verify the RDP listen port configuration in the Registry Editor. Related: What Is the Windows Registry and How Do I Edit It? 7. Check and Configure RDP Listen PortRDP uses 3389 as the default listen port. Similar to the RDP status, you can also configure the listening port using the Registry Editor. Here’s how to do it.
8. Enable Remote Desktop Services in Group Policy EditorIf the issue persists, a Group Policy Object may be blocking the connection to your local computer. Here, you will have to manually enable the service using Group Policy Editor. Here's how to do it.
Close the Group Policy Editor and open Command Prompt as administrator. To do this, type cmd in the Windows search bar, right-click on Command Prompt, and select Run as Administrator. In the Command Prompt, type gpupdate force and hit enter. This will force the recent changes made to the GPO. 9. Check Your RDP Services StatusServices in Windows OS are non-UI software applications that run in the background and are usually scheduled to run automatically. For Remote Desktop to work, services related to RDP should be running on both the remote and client systems. To restart RDP services:
10. Add the RDGClientTransport Key to the RegistryAnother workaround to fix Remote Desktop connection-related issues is to tweak the Registry Editor to add the RDGClientTransport key. It will force the Remote Desktop Protocol to use RPC/HTTP connection instead of HTTP/UDP. To add the RDGClientTransport key:
Now You Can Connect to Remote Desktop With No ErrorRemote Desktop is a handy tool available in the Pro version of Windows 10. However, you may sometimes encounter connection-related issues for various reasons, including disabled Remote Desktop, offline host computer, and network problems. Depending on your PC's status, you may have to follow one or more troubleshooting steps to resolve this error.
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