RDP - Remote Desktop disconnected, Error 2308 socket closed

Question

Trying to RDP to a server I get this:

Error Code: 2308 Error Description: Socket closed

I see this on some of my Windows 2003 servers after reboots. Not every reboot, mind you. Usually after Windows Updates, but not every Windows Update. Another reboot will generally clear it up.

While I can access the troubled server's events and services remotely, nothing ever appears amiss. I would theorize there's a service that could be restarted to spare another reboot, but haven't stumbled over it yet. Is it "Terminal Services?" That would be a bummer since that one doesn't allow me to stop/restart it from the Services.msc...

I'm looking for thoughts on either of:

a) What causes this scenario -or- b) What service(s) might be remotely restarted to solve the issue without another reboot?

Solution

One thing that I've run into before, and it's a known issue with Windows and RDP, is with multiple active network cards in the server. If the RDP's TCP configuration is bound to "any", sometimes RDP will not respond and it may take a reboot to fix it.

To solve this in our environment we simply bound TCP to the NIC we were expecting to use. This is done through the Terminal Services Management MMC in Administrative Tools.

Comments

[Chris_K]

Thanks! Just to confirm: Would that be the "Network Adapter" pull-down on the "Network Adapter" tab of RDP-Tcp Properties?

[palehorse]

Yes, that's the one.

[Chris_K]

I made the change. Ironically, I still had to reboot ;-) But it makes sense and hopefully will fix it for the future.

[Magnetic_dud]

for whom is interested, to run that MMC, run tscc.msc /s