How do I fix my remote desktop that broke after I installed cisco VPN?

Question

I had remote desktop working great for the past year (to an XP pro client from an XP pro machine). I installed Cisco VPN, and now it won't work. I uninstalled VPN, but remote desktop is still broken. Really, I need the VPN client, so uninstalling it is not a long term solution.

When I attempt to remote desktop, it connects, but it fails to prompt me a logon screen. Instead, it remains black until it eventually says (after 30sec) that the session has ended and the connection was lost. But I know it successfully connected because it logs me out on my home machine. But I never see anything except a black screen. All other web-based applications are working.

Additionally, it seems to work inside the local network. The internal IP of both machines are different. The resolutions are the same on both machines. I have rebooted both machines.

As a final point, I have been unable to get VPN working on this machine as well, but that may be a configuration issue. However, it could be related.

Answer 1

1st...... Are you running a firewall on either PC?

Answer 2

A virtual private network (VPN) is a communications network tunneled through another network, and dedicated for a specific network. One common application is secure communications through the public Internet, but a VPN need not have explicit security features, such as authentication or content encryption. VPNs, for example, can be used to separate the traffic of different user communities over an underlying network with strong security features. A VPN may have best-effort performance, or may have a defined Service Level Agreement (SLA) between the VPN customer and the VPN service provider. Generally, a VPN has a topology more complex than point-to-point. The distinguishing characteristic of VPNs are not security or performance, but that they overlay other network(s) to provide a certain functionality that is meaningful to a user community. What is Remote Desktop? With the Remote Desktop feature in Windows XP, you can remotely control a computer from another office, from home, or while traveling. This allows you to use the data, applications, and network resources that are on your office computer, without being in your office. In the Illustration below, you can see that an Systems Administrator can quickly (and securely) get into their corporate offices and do that, system down, no problem, you can fix from anywhere you can find an Internet connection that is stable enough to let you work.

Answer 3

Is the VPN from your PC to the network where this other PC exists or..is this other machine sitting somewhere other then the network your establishing a VPN to?



Most companies that use Cisco VPN do not allow "Split VPN" ie..only route the traffic that NEEDS to go across the tunnel through the tunnel, allow everything else to go out normally.



Also, what is probably going on is that the Remote PC traffic is timing out b/c it cannot get back to you b/c of the VPN. You can turn the VPN off w/o actually uninstalling it..



Cisco VPN is a hack at best though.

Answer 4

Instead of RD try using Log Me In it free

Answer 5

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