Why cant I access my Remote Desktop?

In this article, we will take a look at the basic techniques for diagnosing a problem with Remote Desktop Connection. For example, when you try to establish a connection to the remote server using the Windows built-in mstsc.exe client [Remote Desktop Connection], the message Initiating Remote Connection appears, and then the user receives an error:

Remote Desktop cant find the computer %RDPHostName%. This might mean that %RDPHostName% does not belong to the specified network. Verify the computer name and domain that you are trying to connect to.

How to Fix the Error: Remote Desktop Cant Find the Computer on Windows?

In most cases, this error means there are problems with your DNS servers [or DNS records on them], because of which your computer cant resolve the specified hostname.

First of all, make sure you have specified the correct hostname of the remote RDP host in the Computer field.

Try to connect to the RDP server by IP address instead of the DNS name. If the RDP connection by an IP address is established correctly, this means the issue is related to DNS.

Possible reasons for the DNS problem are:

1. Incorrect IP addresses of DNS servers are specified in the settings of your Windows computer;
2. On your computer, the hosts file contains incorrect entries for the RDP host names;
3. Your DNS servers are not available [the access is blocked by a firewall or server is down];
4. There is no DNS record in the DNS zone for your RDP host or the record points to the wrong IP address.

Try to find out if your DNS server knows the FQDN of the RDP server you are connecting to [%RDPHostName%]. Open an elevated Command prompt and run the command:

Make sure the command returned the IP address of the remote server, for example:

If the command returned an incorrect entry, try to flush DNS cache [ipconfig/flushdns] on the client and try to resolve the RDP hostname again.

If the nslookup command returns a DNS request timed out error, it means your DNS server is not available [offline, blocked by a firewall] or the wrong DNS server is specified in your network connection settings.

Check the preferred and alternate DNS server IP addresses specified in the network connection settings. You can get local DNS server addresses using the following PowerShell command:

If you have assigned the DNS server addresses manually, check if they are correct with your network administrator. If the DNS server settings are assigned automatically by the DHCP server [Windows Server DHCP or Cisco DHCP server], make sure they match your infrastructure. In the last case, you can refresh your IP settings using the ipconfig command:

If the above advice didnt help, make sure the outbound DNS client traffic is allowed in your firewall. If you are using Windows Defender Firewall with Advanced Security, you can add the firewall rules to accept any inbound traffic on port 53 [both UDP and TCP].

Hint. Or just reset your Windows Firewall settings to the default state.

If the Nslookup command still returns an invalid entry, open the local hosts file with the command:

If there are no entries for your RDP server in the file, you can try to add them manually [this way you can bypass the wrong records your DNS server returns]. You need to add a string to a hosts file in the following format:

You can use the following batch script to add new entries to your host file. Just replace the values in the script with the IP addresses and FQDN names of your RDP hosts or RDS servers:

If the problem is resolved, it means your DNS server is misconfigured. You need to check the entries on it or report the problem to the DNS administrator.

If you are a member of the DNS admins domain security group, you can check the DNS records using the DNS manager mmc snap-in [dnsmgmt.msc].

Connect to a DNS server [usually it is the closest domain controller], expand the DNS zone, and find the A or CNAME record of your RDP host. Make sure it has the correct IP address.

If there are a lot of records in the DNS zone, you can use the View > Filter menu to quickly find the DNS records you need.

Next, check the availability of the RDP server with the ping command:

Then you should check if the RDP port 3389 [TCP] is accessible on the server from the client [this is the port for RDP connection by default]. The easiest way to check the port availability is using the PowerShell command:

If the command returned TcpTestSucceeded: False, this means the RDP service on the remote computer is disabled [you can try to enable Remote Desktop remotely], or the connection is blocked by the firewall on the client, server, or network routers.

If your Windows Defender Firewall with advanced security is set to block outbound connections, you need to allow outbound RDP connections to the specified computer by its IP address. You can create a new rule in Windows Defender using PowerShell:

You can also allow outgoing RDP connections to any computer:

A few tips to check if you cant connect to an RDP server:

1. Try to update the version of your RPD client [especially if you are using Windows XP, Windows 7, or 8.1];
2. Try to use an alternative RDP client [RDCMan];
3. Temporarily disable the antivirus and firewall on the client and server-side and check the RDP connection;
4. If you are connecting from a Windows XP client and the NLA [Network Level Authentication] is enabled on the server, then on the client side XP you can enable NLA support only through the registry;
5. Remote connection is not possible if the user account under which you are connecting does not have a password.

Check Settings on Remote Desktop Host

If nothing helps, you need to check the settings on the remote Windows host to which you are connecting via RDP. Open the PowerShell console as an administrator.

Check the IP address and name [FQDN] of the remote computer with the command:

Make sure you entered the correct IP address or hostname to connect to this computer in the RDP client window.

Check if the computer is using the Private or Domain network profile. You can get the current connection profile like this:

If the NetworkCategory is set to the Public network profile, this may limit the RDP connectivity. Change the network profile type to Private:

Check if RDP is enabled on the computer:

If the fDenyTSConnections registry value is set to 1, then the RDP is disabled. Change the value to 0.

Check if the following services are running on the computer:

• Remote Desktop Services [TermService].
• Remote Desktop Services UserMode Port Redirector[UmRdpService].

If the services are not running, change their startup order and restart the computer:

Make sure the RDP service accepts connections on the default TCP port 3389:

Now check if the RDP service is listening on port 3389:

Also, check if this port is listened to by the TermService service of the svchost.exe process [you need to specify the PID of the process using the netstat command]:

Now run the command:

Verify if the list contains rdp-tcp [Remote Desktop Protocol Listener] with the Listen status.

Remote Desktop Cant find the Computer through the RDWeb Gateway

In some cases, you can get an error the Remote Desktop cant find the computer when you trying to create a remote RDP connection or running a RemoteApp hosted on the Remote Desktop Gateway. You can see the following error after successful authentication on RDWEB Gateway:

RemoteApp Disconnected Remote desktop cant find the computer FQDN.

First, try to specify the correct RD Gateway address in the RDP connection settings manually [the connection through RDWebAccess is performed not via standard port 3389, but through HTTPS 443 port] and try to connect. If the connection is successfully established, then you have a misconfigured RDWebAccess server.

To fix the problem, open the IIS Management console on the RD Web Access server. Go to Sites > Default Web Site > RDWeb > Pages. Open the Application Settings section and in the DefaultTSGateway parameter specify the external DNS name of your RD Gateway server.

Now refresh the RDWeb page and try to establish an RDP connection again.

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