Remote Desktop trouble..again

[Jason]

Are you attempting to access the other computer by its IP address or
by its hostname? Use the IP address...

Interesting! I ping'd the other computer (the one from which I am trying
to connect) to get it's ip address. I cannot explain this, but the name
of it resolved to an ip address that is NOT in the 192.168 subnet! It's
an external address that appears to belong to Time Warner, my ISP... I
don't know what to make of that.

Have you made sure the box is checked to enable Remote Desktop
connections (on the target computer), and you've checked the firewall
status to make sure RDC is allowed? Are you running any "Internet
security" programs? They are notorious for doing exactly what you're
describing.

I've tried to pay attention to all of those items and think I've got them
set up correctly. I even disabled the (Norton) security software on both
machines to no avail.

Can you make Remote Desktop connections in the other direction?

No.. see above

? stumped.

 

[Char Jackson]

Interesting! I ping'd the other computer (the one from which I am trying
to connect) to get it's ip address. I cannot explain this, but the name
of it resolved to an ip address that is NOT in the 192.168 subnet! It's
an external address that appears to belong to Time Warner, my ISP... I
don't know what to make of that.

I'm not sure what you meant there, about pinging the other box to get
its IP address. You need to know its IP address *before* you can ping
it.

It would be helpful if you could describe your network. I asked this
before, but how are the computers connected to your LAN? What are
their IP addresses and netmasks? Go to each computer, open a Command
Prompt, and run 'ipconfig /all'. Paste the respective outputs here if
you don't know what to look for.

The short answer is, if these two computers are physically on the same
LAN but logically on different subnets, RDC isn't going to work
without lots of help. Ask for details if you're interested.

I've tried to pay attention to all of those items and think I've got them
set up correctly. I even disabled the (Norton) security software on both
machines to no avail.

Norton security software = red flag, even if it tells you it's
disabled.

No.. see above

? stumped.

Figure out the IP addressing first. Nothing falls into place until you
get that part right.

 

[Stan Brown]

Interesting! I ping'd the other computer (the one from which I am trying
to connect) to get it's ip address. I cannot explain this, but the name
of it resolved to an ip address that is NOT in the 192.168 subnet!

I'm at (or past) the edge of my knowledge here, but I suspect the IP
address you get out of a ping is different from the one you get if
you run IPCONFIG on the target machine, as I suggested.

 

[Jason]

but the screen update behavior was quite slow compared
to the mstsc.

I am surprised to hear that.

I'm sort of a closet type-A when it comes to response times[/QUOTE]

lol, me too! but it's true. The network hookup is quite fast. RDC isn't
going to set any records either, but it seems quicker to me. With both
programs I notice that the ClearType anti-aliasing is not getting
applied. I guess that makes sense - the remote system's drivers don't
know anything about the local machine's display.

 

[Jason]

ortunately, Windows doesn't do that. Instead, it does something far
more useful by simply placing the screen snapshot (or partial snapshot
if Alt was used) in the system clipboard, where you can use your
favorite application to manipulate it before saving it in a location
and format that you prefer.

I've gotten a lot of mileage out of a little utility called
"SnagIt". It's two Killer Features, IMHO, are the ability to
restrict the snapshot to a rectangle that the user specifies and
the ability to snapshot the entire contents of a window even
though one would have to scroll to see them.

It's a real time saver when writing documentation and one wants
to capture only the relevant area of a screen.[/QUOTE]


Have you tried the Snip tool in Win 7?

 

[Jason]

Interesting! I ping'd the other computer (the one from which I am trying
to connect) to get it's ip address. I cannot explain this, but the name
of it resolved to an ip address that is NOT in the 192.168 subnet! It's
an external address that appears to belong to Time Warner, my ISP... I
don't know what to make of that.


I've tried to pay attention to all of those items and think I've got them
set up correctly. I even disabled the (Norton) security software on both
machines to no avail.


No.. see above

? stumped.

Call off the hounds, it's working!

I undid a change I'd made to my router and that seemed to fix everything.
I had set the router NOT to use DHCP to assign nameservers - I 'hard
wired' the opendns servers a while ago since Time Warner's nameservers
were having issues. Once I changed that, the IP addresses that ping
returned were in the 192.168 subnet as I would expect.

The only unexplained bit of weirdness is why a self-ping returns an IPV6
format address. IPV6 is disabled. Both Win 7 machines behave that way.

 

[Jason]

I'm not sure what you meant there, about pinging the other box to get
its IP address. You need to know its IP address *before* you can ping
it.

No, it'll resolve the remote host's name to an IP address, and did.

It would be helpful if you could describe your network. I asked this
before, but how are the computers connected to your LAN? What are
their IP addresses and netmasks? Go to each computer, open a Command
Prompt, and run 'ipconfig /all'. Paste the respective outputs here if
you don't know what to look for.

I know what to look for and all's well now. All the computers are in the
same subnet and each has the correct net mask.

The short answer is, if these two computers are physically on the same
LAN but logically on different subnets, RDC isn't going to work
without lots of help. Ask for details if you're interested.

Thanks, but that's not necessary now...

Norton security software = red flag, even if it tells you it's
disabled.

I jiggered Win temporarily so's not to even start it at boot on both
machines. Task manager shows that its processes are not running. That
didn't seem to have any effect, however. Fixing the router did.

Figure out the IP addressing first. Nothing falls into place until you
get that part right.

True. It seems ok now. I'm still curious about the IPV6 addresses when a
Win 7 machine pings itself. A little Google hunting shows that lots of
people have noticed this, but I didn't see an explanation as to why.

 

[Jason]

I'm at (or past) the edge of my knowledge here, but I suspect the IP
address you get out of a ping is different from the one you get if
you run IPCONFIG on the target machine, as I suggested.

It shouldn't be. The addresses are assigned dynamically and the router
knows how to resolve a hostname to the assigned IP.

 

[Char Jackson]

Call off the hounds, it's working!

I undid a change I'd made to my router and that seemed to fix everything.
I had set the router NOT to use DHCP to assign nameservers - I 'hard
wired' the opendns servers a while ago since Time Warner's nameservers
were having issues. Once I changed that, the IP addresses that ping
returned were in the 192.168 subnet as I would expect.

None of that makes any sense with regards to the problem, as you
described it. If the two computers are both on your LAN, your router
and whatever DNS server you have configured are completely out of the
equation. Those two computers are (or should be) on a switched
network, not a routed network.

The only unexplained bit of weirdness is why a self-ping returns an IPV6
format address. IPV6 is disabled. Both Win 7 machines behave that way.

Try using IP addresses rather than hostnames. Your life will suddenly
become a lot easier.

Side note: on one of my systems, I had to disable IPv6 for other
reasons and did so by bringing up the Properties for that interface
and removing the check box for IPv6. Immediately, that interface no
longer had an IPv6 address assigned. It sounds like you've tried to
disable IPv6 in some other way.

 

[Char Jackson]

No, it'll resolve the remote host's name to an IP address, and did.

You were supposed to be testing with IP addresses, not host names.

I know what to look for and all's well now. All the computers are in the
same subnet and each has the correct net mask.

What did you change in order to make that happen? (Please don't say
you changed your DNS server. That won't have anything to do with it.)

Thanks, but that's not necessary now...

I jiggered Win temporarily so's not to even start it at boot on both
machines. Task manager shows that its processes are not running. That
didn't seem to have any effect, however. Fixing the router did.

I wonder what you did to the router in order to 'fix' this.

True. It seems ok now. I'm still curious about the IPV6 addresses when a
Win 7 machine pings itself. A little Google hunting shows that lots of
people have noticed this, but I didn't see an explanation as to why.

You have IPv6 enabled and you're pinging your computer by its
hostname. Both of those conditions have to be true in order to get
those results. Try disabling IPv6 and/or pinging your host by IP
address and see what you get. You can use the actual DHCP-assigned
IPv4 address or the loopback address, whichever is easier.

 

[Char Jackson]

It shouldn't be. The addresses are assigned dynamically and the router
knows how to resolve a hostname to the assigned IP.

Hint: the router isn't involved in resolving hostnames to IPs.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

No, it'll resolve the remote host's name to an IP address, and did.

I know what to look for and all's well now. All the computers are in the
same subnet and each has the correct net mask.


Thanks, but that's not necessary now...

I jiggered Win temporarily so's not to even start it at boot on both
machines. Task manager shows that its processes are not running. That
didn't seem to have any effect, however. Fixing the router did.

True. It seems ok now. I'm still curious about the IPV6 addresses when a
Win 7 machine pings itself. A little Google hunting shows that lots of
people have noticed this, but I didn't see an explanation as to why.

Add the argument -4 to the command line to get ipv4 addresses.

ping -4 OtherComputer

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

The only unexplained bit of weirdness is why a self-ping returns an IPV6
format address. IPV6 is disabled. Both Win 7 machines behave that way.

Redundant post (sorry)

ping -4 OtherComputer

 

[Stan Brown]

Per Char Jackson:

I've gotten a lot of mileage out of a little utility called
"SnagIt". It's two Killer Features, IMHO, are the ability to
restrict the snapshot to a rectangle that the user specifies and
the ability to snapshot the entire contents of a window even
though one would have to scroll to see them.

Hmm -- the rectangle restriction isn't an issue for me. I paste into
Irfanview, draw a rectangle with my mouse, and hit Ctrl-Y.

But this ability to capture a *whole* window, not just the visible
portion -- that *is* of interest to me. I'll check it out, and my
thanks to you for mentioning this feature.

 

[Stan Brown]

It shouldn't be. The addresses are assigned dynamically and the router
knows how to resolve a hostname to the assigned IP.

Never mind "shouldn't"; this is engineering, not science. What
matters is how it actually works, not how it *should* work.

I entreat you to try the experiment and tell us whether they are in
fact the same.

 

[Zaidy036]

I've gotten a lot of mileage out of a little utility called
"SnagIt". It's two Killer Features, IMHO, are the ability to
restrict the snapshot to a rectangle that the user specifies and
the ability to snapshot the entire contents of a window even
though one would have to scroll to see them.

It's a real time saver when writing documentation and one wants
to capture only the relevant area of a screen.

Have you tried the Snip tool in Win 7?[/QUOTE]

or the Ashampoo Snap series.

 

[Jason]

Hint: the router isn't involved in resolving hostnames to IPs.

Mine does for hosts on its LAN.

 

[Jason]

You were supposed to be testing with IP addresses, not host names.


What did you change in order to make that happen? (Please don't say
you changed your DNS server. That won't have anything to do with it.)


I wonder what you did to the router in order to 'fix' this.


You have IPv6 enabled and you're pinging your computer by its
hostname. Both of those conditions have to be true in order to get
those results. Try disabling IPv6 and/or pinging your host by IP
address and see what you get. You can use the actual DHCP-assigned
IPv4 address or the loopback address, whichever is easier.

I checked again to be sure. IPV6 is not enabled (checked) in TCP/IP
Properties on either machine.

 

[Jason]

Add the argument -4 to the command line to get ipv4 addresses.

ping -4 OtherComputer

I did. It's returning a V4 IP address.

 

[Char Jackson]

Mine does for hosts on its LAN.

No, the router isn't involved in that. That includes your router.