Okay, so....

I installed Vista Ultimate x64 last night on my home PC. Using my room-mate's laptop on LAN I was able to RDC to my Vista station using my old IP (not the new IPv6 crap). I had enabled RDC on my Vista machines, disabled the firewall, and allowed older versions of RDC client to connect. All seemed well, untill....

I got to work today.

It seems as if I cannot connect now, to my home PC from work. I am running the same OS ont he laptop I used last night, and all of my settings in my router are as they were pre-vista install, and my local IP has not changed (according to my DHCP Clients Table).

Anyone know what is going on here? If it's a simple router setting, I have remote router config on, so I can make the required changes from here if required.

You certainly have to "tell" the router which IP address to redirect the RDP (Port 3389) packets.

I've done that, lol. I'm not a total noob. I am actually in the DMZ, so all packets that are not specificly assigned should be going to my PC.

Turns out that my computer could just simply have been turned off....

Decided to run some tests and see whats going on. Signed onto AIM and I didn't get the notification that I was online already. So.... Maybe my room-mate shut it down, even after I told him I didn't want him touching my comp untill I've had a chance to escort him around vista a little.....

It appears I was incorrect... I got home from work and my PC was on and waiting for me.

I can connect on lan using my LAN IP, and using my DNS hosted @ GoDaddy.com, but on WAN I cannot access it. Perhapps this has something to do with IPv6? Does anyone know how to correctly connect to RCD on Vista, using Windows XP's version? I have already changed the settings to allow older versions of RDC to connect to my Vista PC?

Perhapps it is as simple as using IPv4 over IPv6? But where would I change this setting?

Does anyone know how Vista handles TCP/IP connections in idle mode? I went to bed last night with my music on, logged into Trillian (AIM/MSN/Yahoo/IRC). When I woke up I just got ready for work and left, but my computer was on! I had the moniter powered off, and my room mate turned off my speakers when he went to bed, but the keyboard was lit up, along with the lighting in my case. Now I am @ work and I cannot remote desktop. I called my co-worker last night when I was changing settings on it, and he confirmed that he was able to connect. I even had him describe it to me, as he's seen me on Windows XP RDC, but not on Vista, and what he described seeing was definitly Vista RDC.

But anyways, back to the point, when I left, my computer was most certainly ON! And now I can't RDC. I even got on some of my messanging services, and I am not connected from home. And to take it one step farther, I remote desktoped to another computer at home, and attempted to ping my computer via local IP, and I am getting 100% loss.

Yes my firewall is off, no I'm not stupid.

Help?

Ok,
lets try and lay out what is happening, you have your home computer sitting in the DMZ at your house. the IP for this is what(internet capable or local Lan)? you said you have your DNS hosted at go daddy, it is redirection to your internet IP that is hosted on your router? can you ping that url and get a response? what are your power settings set to in vista? have you checked to see if it is setup to sleep or power down components to save power?

I'll lay it all out for you. (And you may be onto something with powerdown mode, I'll get to that at the end.)

Up untill last week I've been using Win XP Pro. I've been using the RDC client over the past few years, so I am familiar with what ports need to be open, forwarding those ports, ect. I have 3 computers on my LAN, all working through a Linksys WRT54G Wireless. Each computer has remote desktop enabled, on it's own port. (My comp is default, and then my room-mates desktop and lap top take 3390 and 3391, respectivly). I've never had an issue connecting untill I installed vista on my new sata drives I got on monday.

After the install finished, I changed the things I'd typicaly change on an XP fresh install, and installed all my drives and basic apps. After that I went into the system properties, and enabled RCD connection, and set it to allow from all versions. I tested the remote desktop at home from my room-mates laptop over the local connection using Windows XP SP2, and was able to connect. From this point I was assuming everything was working fine, as nothing on the router had changed since I was using XP, and I was able to connect sucsessfuly crossing XP into Vista. I went to put on some music and went to bed.

The next morning I woke up late for work(as usual), and bolted out the door without checking my e-mail and such. When I got to work, I opened up RCD (old version), and tried to connect. After 15 minutes of messing with my router via remote administration, I gave up. When I got home I checked out my comp, and it was on. I began to fiddle with some settings, tried connecting from the laptop again, and it worked. At this point, I called my friend from work who came in to releave me, and asked him to attempt a remote desktop connection. I gave him the hostname I have set up on my GoDaddy DNS, and he claimed he was in. I had him describe the logon screen to me, as it is very much different from XP, and I knew he had not seen an RCD connection to vista yet. What he described to me seemed pretty dead on.

At this point I was a but flustered, and decided maybe it's windows updates, powering my comp down at night for a reboot, and never logging me back in, and perhapps the service is not starting after the re-boot. I changed windows update to only notifiy me, but not download and install. The next day I had my other room-mate bring my comp to me at work (I work in a LAN center), so I could use it for a match for counter-strike. When he got it here, I turned it on, and remote desktoped from the comp I use for work, and it seemed to work flawlessly. So after a day off, I have my comp back at home now. I was using it last night before I went to bed, get up now and straight to work, and cannot connect again. -Sigh-

I've found that some applications have trouble hooking the RDC client to preform certain tasks, such as monitering keys and such. I preffer to use my RDC connection to chat on AIM and such from work, instead of AIM/IRC/MSN on the local comp. It appears as if my boss has the computer we work frome very day keylogged.

HI JON! Yeah, I found it... Found the one on your comp too Jon! Oh, and we all know about it now. I was sure to let everyone know that you have all of our passwords now, and none of them were too pleased....

Anyways, now that I have that out of the way....

Regarding the GoDaddy question, yes. I have a hosting account with them, and I just set up an IP re-direct for a sub-domain to point to my computer. This makes it easy for me to manage IP's and such. I've tried connecting via the actual IP and the hostname I have set up, and neither work.

Regarding possible power options, I am begining to think that it could be the issue. XP never automaticaly suspended itself by default after a fresh install, so I didn't expect Vista too. I'll take a look at that when I get home today. Does vista automaticaly suspend itself with a default install these days?

On another note, I noticed that it seems to only remote desktop when I am around and interacting with it. I do find it curious that it seems to only not work in the mornings. So it very well could be a power setting. I also noticed when I open up a shell to ping with from my router on remote mangment, I can ping the other computers on my network, but not my desktop. I also sign onto MSN/AIM/IRC, and am not connected from home like I was when I went to bed the night before.

Anyone know if there is an option enabled by default to suspend windows after X hours?

Side note: I was currious to find out when it was I disconnected from IRC, so I loaded up another user, and logged into one of my channels. When you preform a !users command, it lists all users who have any privillages in the channel, along with thier last seen time. It is exactly 7:23 AM as I type this, and when I !users, I see

So it seems my system logged me out of all my chat programs, lost net connection, whatever, last night at EXACTLY midnight.....

Curious

Vista by default is set in a balanced power save mode, after 1 hour it will put the computer to sleep. once it is in sleep, you will lose net connectivity, this is probably why it isn't working. check the power settings and change them to somethine else, or turn it off. Try it then from work, can you RDC to another machine at home? is it possible that the RDC ports got shutdown at your work?

It's probably just the power settings then. I work @ an internet cafe, so we don't have any ports closed in the firewall because... well..... there is no firewall, lol. Too much of a pain to manage firewalls when each comp needs to be able to join and host games. Also, to top it off, I am the only tech, so if there was a closed port, I woulda been the one to close it, lol.

I mean, the owner could of closed it, but I think that is a bit beyond his capabilitys, and he knows I'd just open it back up again.

But the short answer is yes, I can RDC 2 other comps on my network @ home, my room mate's laptop, and his desktop. I am the IT guy @ home, lol, so I manage all of his stuff as well.

Found the artical about it.

http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-...11-6129085.html

Display is on 20 min, sleep is on 1 hour. I guess it was just a coinsidence that I got off my comp exactly at 11 last night, lol.

Got it working now. It was the power settings. I called my room mate and had him stand by my comp. Tried to connect, no go... Then i had him press some keys and tell me when he saw the login screen, and then I tried to connect again, and it worked.

GOD..... So annoying...

Not to nag... but your firewall is off, and your computer is in the DMZ? That sounds stupid to me...

I can count the number of times my computer's data has been compromized on 0 hands. =P

Just because my firewall is off and I am in the DMZ, doesn't mean I don't know when someone is snooping on me. The last guy that tried to hack me got his broadband turned into a Dial-up..... for a month..... untill he wised up and changed his IP.

And I don't keep anything I'm not willing to give away on my computer anyways. All important files go on my external hard drive I routinly keep unplugged from my PC. I say routinly because it's my iPod, and my iPod goes where I go. Everything I keep on my iPod gets rar'ed and backed up to disk once a week or so.

And to top it off I do keep anti-virus up to date, and scan daily.

I just hate having to change stuff or add new filters whenever I need to host something on my PC. The list of ports I need to turn on and off on a nearly daily basis is a bit large, and I hate having to reconfigure when I re-install, or add new things when I put something new on my system.