RDC Not Connecting Within Home Network

Question

I’m stuck.

I had rdc working and connecting just fine sometime before the holidays and now I can’t seem to get it to work within my network at home (never mind from work-I also can’t do that but could a couple of weeks ago). I’ve tried to troubleshoot it and I just can’t seem to figure out where the error is. Here is what I have tried/checked:

• I can see my desktop (ideal target) from my laptop. It is visible under network devices, I can browse files from laptop to desktop and vice versa. I can ping the desktop from the laptop with both the ip and the device name.
• My laptop is on the wireless and the desktop is plugged directly into the router but plugging the laptop in too did not make a difference.
• Both computers are assigned a dhcp reservation and when asked, both computers report the ip listed in the reservation.
• Yes, rdc connection is enabled on both computers.
• The desktop only has windows firewall running. Yes, the remote desktop exception is checked. I tried disabling windows firewall altogether; that didn’t fix it either. I also tried disabling the firewall on my laptop too just for fun and it also made no difference.
• AP isolation is disabled by default on my router and always has been (and still is).
• The port used by the rdc is still what I set it at in the registry.
• I changed the timezone settings off of the correct time zone and then then changed it back on my router; it made no difference (although, this did fix a similar issue about two years ago…)
• The time zones for the computers are the same.
• The desktop is Win 7 ultimate and the laptop is Win 7 pro (it may be something stupid I’m missing but it isn’t that)
• I restarted my router (I really don’t want to reset it but it may come to that…)
• Of course I’ve restarted the machines several times.
• I reinstalled the network drivers (yeah, now I’m just trying random stuff-I recognize this)

The only significant thing I changed during the holidays was a couple of days ago I tried an in-place upgrade to Win 8 (yeah, I know…but I like playing with a new os). There were driver conflicts and after 3 or 4 failed attempts I gave up in favor of getting something done with the return to work this week. That may have caused something but it may not have been working before that. I only use RDC in sudden bursts of good work ethic.

So…that is the end of my story. Any suggestions?

And just for completion, my router is the Linksys E3000

Followup: I formatted my machine and installed windows 8 fresh and I still cannot connect. Perhaps the problem is with something on my router? Anyone have any ideas?

Answer 1

I'm blaming the aborted Windows 8 upgrade. Your computer SAYS that remote desktop is enabled, but I'll bet it isn't. I hate to say it, but I think you're going to end up reinstalling Windows. Hope I'm wrong.