One of Microsoft’s biggest support call generators has always been the dreaded ‘Remote Desktop Disconnected’ or ‘Can’t Connect to Remote Computer’ error messages when trying to connect to a terminal server from a client. The problem with this issue is that there are a myriad of causes that all end up causing the same symptom. Since there are several causes for the same thing, there is a lot of information out there on how to troubleshoot the various causes. The problem is, all of this troubleshooting material is spread out in multiple Knowledge Base articles and who knows where else on the internet, and even worse, there is no way to tell which cause may be the root of the problem in a given case. So, even if you query the internet and find articles that mention the error message, the articles you find may or may not even apply to your situation.
So, the point of this post is to simply point out the links to the three articles in question. If you are the administrator of any sort of terminal server environment, I recommend keeping these links in your favourites in case you need them in the future:
186645 Troubleshooting RDP Client Connection Problems (aggregate article that points to the three below)
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;186645
2477023 Remote Desktop Disconnected or Can’t Connect to Remote Computer or Remote Desktop Server (Terminal Server) running Windows Server 2003
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-US;2477023
2477133 Remote Desktop Disconnected or Can’t Connect to Remote Computer or Remote Desktop Server (Terminal Server) running Windows Server 2008
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-US;2477133
2477176 Remote Desktop Disconnected or Can’t Connect to Remote Computer or Remote Desktop Server (Terminal Server) running Windows Server 2008 R2
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-US;2477176
More Information:
These symptoms are fairly common as seen from below articles/posts:
1. Port assignment issue:
http://www.computing.net/answers/windows-2003/unable-to-rdp/8257.html
2. This following article from ehow.com talks about how to troubleshoot a remote desktop disconnected problem but does not cover all the symptoms:
http://www.ehow.com/how_6574577_troubleshoot-remote-desktop-disconnected-problem.html
Additionally, we have more symptoms documented under the following article:
Troubleshooting General Remote Desktop Error messages
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc780927(WS.10).aspx
Helpforsure 