Navigation
Virtualization Solutions ... Articles and Whitepapers ... Downloads ... Internet Resources Books ... Windows Server 2008 Terminal Services ... Windows Server 2003 Terminal Services My Profile ... About this Web Site ... Benny's Biography ... Presentations 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004 and earlier

	Awards

Q&A – I cannot use the Remote Desktop Client

Posted by Benny Tritsch on February 28, 2005

Question

I am using Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition (English Version). At the task on installing the Server, I activated the Terminal Server service for administrative remote access like it was done on Windows 2000 Server. At this time, I didn't know the availability of Remote Desktop for Windows Server 2003 nor the difference between it and Terminal Server. In the beginning, remote access worked as expected but at some point in time I was not able any more to login to the server. I think this was the end of 120 day grace period of terminal server licensing. At this point I tried to activate Remote Desktop (found on tab "Remote" in "System Properties"). But every time when I tried to connect to the server I get the following message from the Microsoft RDP Client (Remote Desktop Connection):

"The client could not connect to the remote computer. Remote connections might not be enabled or the computer might be too busy to accept new connections. It is also possible that network problems are preventing your connection. Please try connecting again later. If the problem continues to occur, contact your administrator."

I don't know how to configure the server correctly. Which services have to run and which not?

Answer

If you receive this error message, you activated Terminal Services in application server mode. After the evaluation period, a licensing server is required for the access to this Terminal Server. But this is not what you want. Terminal Services in remote desktop mode are ALWAYS available under Windows Server 2003 – in contrast to Windows 2000 Server. You only have to activate the "Terminal Server" role for Windows Server 2003, if you want to use the Terminal Services in application server mode! But you're in good company: This is a very common admin error.

So, remove the role "Terminal Server" using the "Configure Your Server Wizard". Then allow administrators to connect remotely to your Terminal Server by using the "Remote" tab in the System tool. That's it -- no TS licensing server needed anymore as long as only two admins log in remotely to your Terminal Server at the same time.

But there is another problem: If any additional server applications or services besides the standard OS components were installed after this server was switched to app server mode, there may well be issues with these applications or services after the server will be switched back to remote admin mode. So, I would not recommend switching it back without extensive testing.