Remote Desktop Connection after reboot

[aaborkar]

Hi,

I have a Win XP Sp3 pc sitting on the school network to which I do RDC using the SSH tunnel with putty. It works fine and I can connect to it with no problem. The problem arises when I reboot the computer. I am unable to connect to the machine unless a local login has been done first. After a local login, I am able to see winlogin in the RDC window and go ahead from there. This is a big problem as I have to be around the machine when an update that requires a reboot is performed. Other pcs sitting on the same network do not have this problem.

Any suggestions as to how I can work around this issue?

Thanks.

 

[srhoades]

Sounds like the SSH server is being initiated with the local login instead of a service when the computer starts.

 

[aaborkar]

I have some more light on the situation.

I'm currently spoofing the MAC address from the registry as the school network is MAC restricted. However, since the mod is implemented via registry key. From my understanding, the spoofing doesn't begin until the registry is loaded i.e. windows has started after a login.

Do you think this is probably the reason why I can't rdc until a local login is done first? If so, is there a way to update the MAC address prior to winlogin?

 

[aaborkar]

Sounds like the SSH server is being initiated with the local login instead of a service when the computer starts.

The ssh connection is setup on the home computer side and not the remote pc. Currently, the pc is on the school network. I setup an ssh tunnel from home using putty and then connection using 127.0.0.2:3390 to connect to my pc. As I mentioned, I keep putty and rdc running but it wont show the login screen. After I login locally, in about 10 secs the login screen appears in RDC. Could it be that the network card is not online until the a login has been done first?

 

[srhoades]

I understand that but where is the ssh sever doing the authenticating, your pc at school or a school server?

 

[aaborkar]

I understand that but where is the ssh sever doing the authenticating, your pc at school or a school server?

I run a script that I use to call putty to connect to the school server. Here is the script...

@echo off
echo starting connection
start putty.exe -ssh -2 ecelinsrv2.ece.gatech.edu -L 127.0.0.2:3390:143.x.x.x:3389 -l gtID
pause
start c:\windows\system32\mstsc.exe /v:127.0.0.2:3390 /f

This I run from the home computer. I get a cmd line screen in putty which authenticates my connection to school using login/pwd. After that, I fire up mstsc and then winlogin pops up.

 

[srhoades]

Do you have the latest drivers for your network card from the manufacturers website?

 

[aaborkar]

I have xp sp3 and microsoft update shows my pc is up2date. In the network settings, I have Shutdown / WOL enabled. WOL capabilities is 10mbps for the NIC.

Do you think enabling filesharing will make a difference? On my home pcs, with filesharing, I am able to access the access folders and rdc w/o logging in first. Will this help any?

 

[srhoades]

Find out the make and model of your network card and go to the manufacturers site and download the latest drivers.

 

[aaborkar]

Find out the make and model of your network card and go to the manufacturers site and download the latest drivers.

Still no luck :-( Do you think it varies from card to card?

 

[srhoades]

Do you leave the computer on are you using WOL?

 

[aaborkar]

Here are the adv settings on the NIC

802.1Q/1p... : Disabled
Auto Disable PCIe: Dis
Auto Disable Phy: Dis
Checksum Offlad: Rx Tx Enabled
Flowcontrol: En
Green Ethernet: En
Jumbo Frame: Dis
Large Send off: En
Ntwk Add:
Shutdown WOL: En
Speed Duplex: Auto neg
WOL Cap: Pattern match & magic packet
WOL and ShtDn Link Speed: 10mbps first

In addition, looking at the event viewer I get:

Event Type: Warning
Event Source: Dhcp
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1003
Date: 5/13/2010
Time: 9:24:56 AM
User: N/A
Computer: CT5204Z-01
Description:
Your computer was not able to renew its address from the network (from the DHCP Server) for the Network Card with network address 001FBC090F64. The following error occurred:
The semaphore timeout period has expired. . Your computer will continue to try and obtain an address on its own from the network address (DHCP) server.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 79 00 00 00 y...

 

[srhoades]

Try ipconfig /flushdns and then ipconfig /registerdns and see if the problem continues.

 

[aaborkar]

Try ipconfig /flushdns and then ipconfig /registerdns and see if the problem continues.

Tried that and the problem still continued. I had a bad hdd over the wknd which cause many bsod's so I opted to swap all the pc hardware.

After fresh installing XP, the problem disappeared. Sitting on my LAN at home, I am able to login after reboot without a local login first. The culprit is the Symantec Client Security Firewall. However, this is unusal as RDP works despite of Symantec but a local login needs to be done first. Not sure why this would happen. I figured it works or it doesn't, but eitherway I am now using only the AV.

Tomorrow will be the real test, the pc goes back to school. Will keep you guys posted.