Remote Desktop Connection not working on VPN -- another session in progress?

Question

I have looked at many solutions online for the issue that I am having but they just don't seem to be applicable.

I have a VPN connection and I am trying to remote desktop into a computer over the VPN. The error message that I receive is: "Your computer could not connect to another console session on the remote computer because you already have a console session in progress."

I haven't had to connect to the VPN and remote into this computer for a long time, but it worked just fine before and nothing has changed on the remote end. My colleague is able to connect to the VPN and remote in. I am able to ping the computer. I haven't had issues with remote desktop on other networks -- as a matter of fact, I've been using it all day. I really don't know what else it could be ...

Edit

I am now having the exact same problem at another remote site when trying to remote desktop into a computer (still connected with VPN). Again, only my laptop is experiencing this problem. Right now, to get around the issue, I got another laptop from IT and I am using that to remote desktop.

Solution 1

I solved a similar problem when trying to connect via RDP from my Windows 10 home PC to my office PC using putty.exe as a port forwarding mechanism via a Linux gateway machine (similar to using a VPN), I got the same error message and realized the mistake I was making. I was using a command line in the putty.exe shortcut similar to this:

"C:\Program Files\PuTTY\putty.exe" -L 3389:n.n.n.n:3389 username@gatewaymachine

Where n.n.n.n stands for the IP address of my office PC on the internal network at the office.

The above command causes all traffic routed via port 3389 on the local machine to be tunneled to port 3389 on the remote machine. 3389 is the standard RDP port and I was using that number on the local PC as well, just for convenience. It then occurred to me that 3389 might be in use on the local PC, so I stuck a 0 at the end of the number and made an RDP connection to 127.0.0.1:33890. It worked.

The strange thing is that the original command line used to work on Windows 7. Something must have changed in Windows 10, and probably in Windows 8 as well.

Solution 2

Double check to make sure that your DHCP server on your remote (Home or other office) network is not giving the client an IP that is the same or in the same range as your RDP host (Office computer or server) on the office network.

I have a 192.168.1.x net that my RDP server resides on. The end user was at home using his Wi-Fi and a VPN to connect to the office lan. His Wi-Fi router was also setup so that his Wi-Fi LAN at home was 192.168.1.x. It just so happens that he was getting a DHCP address that was the same IP as the RDP server on the office net. 1 in a million but it happens.

Comments

[andy]

I had a problem with a vagrant box (host and client are windows 10). Vagrant didn't complain about a used port. When I manually changed the port (also to 33890) it worked!