Cannot Connect To VMWare Guest OS Using Either RDP or VNC

Question

I have a PC (Windows XP SP3) with VMWare Workstation 7 installed.

The VMWare hosts Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition R2.

RealVNC (4.1.3) is installed on both OS'es. Both of them use Hamachi2.

Host OS (WinXP) also runs ZoneAlarm Firewall. Hamachi network is set as trusted.

My goal is to allow RDP and VNC connections to be made to the guest OS (Windows Server 2003). Both options work absolutely fine if I connect from the host OS. However I have problems when other computers from our Hamachi network try to connect the guest OS (Win2K3).

1. RDP connections. RDP window opens, shows black content and after 15-20 seconds displays following error:

   

2. RealVCN connections. Users are able to connect but all they see is a black screen inside VNC window. At the same their input (keystrokes or mouse moves/clicks) are visible when looking at the console window of the Win2K3.

I really appreciate any ideas on how to resolve the mentioned problems.

Answer 1

I don't have any solid answers, but here are some things I would attempt:

Does port scanning ( I would use nmap from a command line ) from the remote machine to the host and the guest machine reveal anything?

Do the portscan results change with Zone alarm disabled?

Does port scanning the host machine from the guest reveal any significantly different than what is made available to remote machines over Hamachi.

Is the guest OS being NATed behind the Host network adapter, or is it a bridged connection?

Can you make the connection going from the Guest machine to another machine on the Hamachi network?

If you can answer these questions then maybe they will point you towards the answer or at least more information.

Answer 2

as for RDP connections, i think this is a network problem rather than a VMWare problem. I have used VMWare (server version, though) with RDP connections towards Windows XP Professional hosted in VMWare server. as both way failed, and connection from localhost is a success, i think you should look into the network.

first, establish if the conection is of high quality - i.e. is it over VPN? is it over wireless? is it over wired? -- check if there are a lot checksum error. secondly, establish the bandwidth available - is it enough to run a VNC connection? thirdly, disable all firewalls under controlled conditions.

try them first...