I am using remote desktop connection version 8.0.18 to remote connect from my max OS X 10.10.3 to our server which is windows XP terminal server 2008 R2. I first connect to a VPN then remote desktop. This works fine on my mac yet two colleagues who also have the same version of remote desktop connection are unable to connect at all. When the remote desktop is started for them is says initialising and the connecting RDP and then doesn't connect and just goes back to the original microsoft remote desktop screen on their desktop!

I had been using version 8.0.17 until about half an hour ago when I upgraded it to the latest version. Connecting from a windows PC is not an issue at all.

Why should I be able to connect but two colleagues with exact same settings are unable to connect?

Hi,

As you can connect with same application version, it is not caused by RDC.

Could they use your user name and password in both VPN and RDP connection to remote to the terminal server?

If not, it is the account or VPN permission which causes the issue. 

Thanks

Their VPN's have been working fine up until this point for gaining remote access to the server so presumably it is unlikely that these are the problem.

I will check to see if I can log on using one of their tokens.

I have just checked and the VPN token that I have been using connects using IPsec and this works fine on both mac and windows PC I am able to remote desktop connect to the terminal server.

I have also tested one of the other VPN tokens that wasn't working. Using this on my windows PC I can connect and successfully remote desktop to our server.

However when using the same token on my mac the VPN connects using Cisco Anyconnect but when I try and remote desktop to our server it doesn't connect.

could it be an issue with cisco anyconnect for mac. I am currently using version 3.1.05160 of that.

• Proposed as answer by I Love MSFTMicrosoft employee Thursday, June 11, 2015 9:47 PM
• Unproposed as answer by I Love MSFTMicrosoft employee Thursday, June 11, 2015 9:47 PM

Hi,

As per this thread:

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/eba9fee8-0dca-4980-9da6-78ac7fc29a9e/why-does-microsoft-remote-desktop-connection-for-mac-version-8018-connect-when-connected-to-an?forum=winRDc

Our support team would like to get more information about your case so please kindly send an email to them. Hope you can get it fixed.

Thank you for your time! 

could it be an issue with cisco anyconnect for mac. I am currently using version 3.1.05160 of that.

It sounds as a very logical assumption. Unfortunately, we don't have Cisco Anyconnect to quickly confirm it.

Would you colleagues be able to upgrade to a newer version of Cisco Anyconnect and try to login with your VPN token?

This issue has been resolved now.

It seems that when our server was upgraded the relevant Microsoft licenses were not installed.

Installing these has now allowed us to connect successfully!