Hi, I work in a organization. I have configured VPN in my computer and when I try to access a remote server it comes with the following error: Remote Desktop can't connect to the remote computer for one of these reasons: 1. remote access to the server is not enabled 2. The remote computer is turned off 3. The remote computer is not available on the network Make sure the remote computer is turned on and connected to the network, and that remote access is enabled. I have connected many times using my computer. I had no problems. But suddenly am facing this. I also tried from a different computer and I was able to connect it without any problems. Also, colleagues at other end of the world are able to connect to the server. When am connected to VPN, am able to ping the server by name and IP. Am also able to connect to the shared folders (going into run command and \\ computer name). But am not able to connect to remote desktop using RDC (mstsc.exe). Please help ! Thanks. Vignesh.

To clarify: You have been able to Remote Desktop from your computer over VPN to this server in the past, but now you cannot? Or is this the first time trying RDC to this particular server? Does the problem only happen over VPN? Are there other servers on the same subnet as that server that you CAN rdc to? Can you rdc to another server, and then rdc from that server to the one that is giving you problem?-.-

Yes you are correct. I was able to take Remote Desktop from my laptop (Windows 7 64-bit) in the past to the same server. But for the past 1 week am not able to. We have only one server over VPN that I can connect. There is another user who sits in another location and he also connects using VPN and has no problems. We share the same admin credentials. I tried connecting to a server that is within my domain and was sucessfull. No problems. Can you rdc to another server, and then rdc from that server to the one that is giving you problem - yes, it works. I personally feel there is something problem with my laptop suddenly. I tried for n number of days but could not find even a single clue.

Interesting. Can you expand on your topology: You are at one location, another Admin is at a 2nd site, and the server you cannot get to is at a 3rd site. The server you CAN rdc to is where? The server you cannot connect to any longer is in a different AD domain? Or in a workgroup? How good is your VPN connection / internet connection? Has the BW and throughput changed? I have seen cases where speed tests show good data, but data transfer is very poor due to lost packets and retransmissions. I have found Wireshark and tools like jPerf good for identifying these kind of issues.-.-

I would also say: - If you can rdc to ANY server successfully, then that likely implies that your laptop is working as expected as far as RDC is concerned - if another person can rdc to that problem server, then RDC is probably configured correctly on that server. - If you can rdc to that problem server from another machine, then your account settings / permissions are probably correct. That would reduce the problem, in my mind, to a specific problem with your laptop/user account going over the VPN to that server. I am more inclined to suspect some kind of network error. You said you could access a network share on the problem server. Can you copy a large file from that share to your local disk? What kind of transfer rate do you see? -.-

Hi, yes it is interesting indeed. I tried copying a file from the shared folder and I was able to do it. Not sure what happened, right now am able to connect to RDC to the server. I really cannot believe this. something fishy. I was trying for the past 10 days without any luck. But Yesterday I kept hitting the connect button for almost 15-20 times though i got the same error. suddenly it connected. :) Am still wondering what might have gone wrong. As long as i do not get this problem again I would be happy ! :) I should really thank you for your timely response. Regards, Vignesh

Glad to see things are working again, for now. I still think the problem might be dropped packets over the VPN. Since its going over the public Internet, quality may vary. I found a tool called PingPlotter which combines Ping and TraceRoute to give one a graphical view of the hops to the destination, and the trends over time of dropped packets and where they happen. I just put in the public IP address of the remote node and it shows me where along the way it might be dropping packets. There may not be much I can do if the problem is at some intermediate provider (like L3 or AT&T), but at least I get a ball park idea. We have a VPN tunnel to our DR site, and we should be getting about 17-20 MBits/sec to them. That ran fine for several months, then the throughput dropped to 9-10 MBits/sec for about a month, then it came back up to 17-20 MBits/sec for a few weeks, and now its back down to 9-10 MBits/sec. The Bandwidth numbers are still in the 20 MBit/sec range, but the throughput is about half given the dropped packets and retransmissions. Best of luck.-.-

Hi, yes it is interesting indeed. I tried copying a file from the shared folder and I was able to do it. Not sure what happened, right now am able to connect to RDC to the server. I really cannot believe this. something fishy. I was trying for the past 10 days without any luck. But Yesterday I kept hitting the connect button for almost 15-20 times though i got the same error. suddenly it connected. :) Am still wondering what might have gone wrong. As long as i do not get this problem again I would be happy ! :) I should really thank you for your timely response. Regards, Vignesh

Hi Vignesh, Glad to hear it works again. Hope this issue will not occur anymore. Regards, Vincent Wang TechNet Community Support