Vista Business Login and RDP Problems

Question

At work, I running Vista Business on a lavishly new PC, which runs great excepting two issues. In order of annoyance, but not importance:

1. When I reboot the machine, the Windows Splash is presented asking me to Press Ctrl + ALT + DELETE so I can logon. It takes three to five minutes and seceral key presses for me to be prompted to select my user account. After which, everything works like a charm.

2. As part of my duties with the firm, I am responsible for emergency work on a rotating basis and deploying patches during off-business hours. I have been given an older laptop with XPSP2 (downloading 3 for kicks right now) which I use for browsing with the intention of RDP to my desktop in the offices. If I am connected at the domain through conventional means, I am able to RDP. However, if I am using an existing broadbad connection with VPN, I am not able to get access. I am able to access other servers, desktops running a variety of OS'es including Vista.

So umm any ideas guys?

Answer 1

as for 2 - this happens with some proprietary VPN software (i.e. Cisco). My solution was to perform my work duties in a Virtual PC (which doesn't need its normal LAN abilities) and do my other network/internet tasks in the physical machine.

Answer 2

I have a Vista at work and uses my home PC to rdc in for support work. I do not experience your problem 1 so I cannot offer any advice. For your second problem have you tried the IP address instead of the machine name? We have situations where sometimes the dns resolution in the office network is not accurate.

Answer 3

Do you have remote access enabled, either on the machine, via group policy?

If not, you might have to go into the Control Panel\System and Maintenance\System and choose Remote Settings (from the menu on the left).

That will show you the options for Remote Deskop, including Don't allow connections, Allow connections from any version of Remote Desktop, and Allow connections from computers running Remote Desktop with Network Level Authentication (which might be the hang up you are experiencing over the VPN).

Good Luck.

Answer 4

I have to chalk this up to "something wierd with my laptop" as I was able to download RoyalTS and connect to the machine just fine. I had Remote connections permitted, firewall disabled, McAffee gone and others could access the machine.

The advice garnered above is excellent and useful for your typical rdp connections