1. 30 July 2008 An Adventure in Remote Access Copyright © 2008 TDI Computer Systems Limited 1 of 10 An Adventure in Remote Access Chuck Emery

2. 30 July 2008 An Adventure in Remote Access Copyright © 2008 TDI Computer Systems Limited 2 of 10 Given: A remote XP Pro SP2 Box Access over VPN with VNC Using Domain Admin access access to a server via Remote Desktop

3. 30 July 2008 An Adventure in Remote Access Copyright © 2008 TDI Computer Systems Limited 3 of 10 Remote means: It’s Sunday afternoon in a locked building several kilometers distant and normal user is unreachable

4. 30 July 2008 An Adventure in Remote Access Copyright © 2008 TDI Computer Systems Limited 4 of 10 Now remote machine is half booted up – waiting for a login. VNC doesn’t work (it isn’t a service). Remote Desktop is not enabled.

5. 30 July 2008 An Adventure in Remote Access Copyright © 2008 TDI Computer Systems Limited 5 of 10 Salvation hinges on port 445 which Windows XP leaves open by default for Remote Assistance. This allows me to configure the hung box for automatic logon using Regedit for the remote machine. (File.Connect Network Registry and enter remote machine’s IP) http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315231

6. 30 July 2008 An Adventure in Remote Access Copyright © 2008 TDI Computer Systems Limited 6 of 10 Now to reboot the remote machine, I can open Computer Management, right click Computer Management (local), select Connect to another computer... and enter the remote’s IP address Then right click Computer Management, Properties and under the Advanced Tab oops – an error window – Win32: The RPC server is unavailable

7. 30 July 2008 An Adventure in Remote Access Copyright © 2008 TDI Computer Systems Limited 7 of 10 I’m in Computer Management for the computer, so I check services and RPC is running. The reason RPC’s not available is it’s on port 1094, behind the Windows firewall. But I’m managing the services for this computer, so I stop the Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) service – and the firewall’s gone!

8. 30 July 2008 An Adventure in Remote Access Copyright © 2008 TDI Computer Systems Limited 8 of 10 Back to the Computer Management Properties, Advanced Tab, Startup and Recovery section, click Settings, and there’s a new button at the lower right

9. 30 July 2008 An Adventure in Remote Access Copyright © 2008 TDI Computer Systems Limited 9 of 10 Which leads to – - and a happy ending.

10. 30 July 2008 An Adventure in Remote Access Copyright © 2008 TDI Computer Systems Limited 10 of 10 Notes: Registry key change to enable Remote Desktop is – HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\fDenyTSConnections change DWORD value from 1 to zero Don’t forget to stop the firewall. Chuck Emery chuck@tdi.ca