29 replies to this topic

[Charles1234]

Dear all,

 

I have been successful with Remote Desktop until yesterday. My rig is controlled with a Mele Quiter 3. I would usually RD using my Ipad or my laptop. Yesterday, I forgot to disconnect the remote desktop session and realized today that the session had ended on my laptop. The Mele Quieter was still on. Since then, I have not been able to connect via Remote Desktop to my mini-pc. I have tried updating Windows, restarting the mini-pc, the laptop, the Ipad, and I have no way to connect to it. I even tried RD from another laptop. It says it cannot find the computer (and I tried the IP address instead of the mini-pc name. No difference)

 

I am close to giving up and consider other connection methods, but perhaps some of you have had similar problems and found a solution?

 

Charles

[deSitter]

The remote machine is probably sleeping. You need to go to it and ensure it never sleeps. And don't forget to explicitly end your session!

 

-drl

[rjkrejci]

Probably need to hook it up to monitor and keybd/mouse and see what's what.

[deSitter]

Maybe I am misunderstanding this. I have been using RDP since the 90s and have never had a single problem with it. Please provide more information. Can you hook up a physical keyboard and monitor to it?

 

-drl

[PeteM]

If it cannot find it, I would go to the command line and ping the ip address to see if you can reach it that way. This almost sounds like a network issue. Is everything on Wifi? or some wifi and some wired?

[UP4014Fan]

I run my laptop using Remote Desktop and had this issue as well after an update to Windows 11 back in February. I posted about it here.

 

For those of you who don't want to go through that thread, here's a direct link to the MS forums where I found the fix that worked for me.  Hope this helps.

[deansjc]

For sure you can.  I'm not sure how you would ever configure it initially without doing so.

 

I found that WRD and ChromeRD both to be troublesome sooner or later and for inexplicable reasons.  The only RD that I have found easy to use and reliable is AnyDesk.

[Charles1234]

I can connect a monitor, mouse and keyboard to it (the mini-pc), no problem. Everything appears normal on the mini-pc. Remote Desktop is ON on the mini-pc, and it is connected to the Internet. However, when trying to RD on it using either the computer name or its IP address, I always get the message that the computer cannot be found.

[wonderinunity]

1. Is the imaging pc on the same WiFi or wired network as the remote?
2. Is it possible that the imaging computer has received a different IP address from the one you expect?

[Charles1234]

All devices are connected on the same wifi network.

 

I have checked the ip address on the mini-pc, and it has not changed.

 

As I said, the only difference from yesterday is that I forgot to log out the remote desktop computer yesterday. Now, no computer seem to be able to connect to it.

 

When I try to ping the mini-pc from my laptop, it seems I cannot reach it.

[PeteM]

If possible, can you connect the laptop via Ethernet instead of wifi to the network and try the ping test? If it is successful, try RDP again. (just trying to rule out issues)

[Charles1234]

I connected the laptop via Ethernet and the ping test (to the mini-pc, connected via wifi) still failed...

[WadeH237]

When you are logged in to the Mele PC, start a command prompt and run the following command:

 

ipconfig

 

That will tell you the IP address of the Mele machine.  Try pinging that.  If that works, try using the IP address as the computer name in Remote Desktop.  If the ping works, I would expect Remote Desktop to work.

 

Beyond that, it would be very helpful to see the exact error message that you get when Remote Desktop fails, and particularly if ping is failing.  By "exact", I mean literally exact, including any punctuation.

[UP4014Fan]

FWIW, my laptop is on the same network and I had the same issues back in February.  This came up after the Windows 11 24H2* came out.  I never tried pinging the laptop when it was connected via Ethernet, so I can't speak to that, but the steps below cleared the connectivity issue for me (from the the MS link above).  If this happened right after a Windows update, this might be the fix.

 

On the remote PC:

 

Edit Group Policy>Local Computer Policy Editor> Computer Configuration> Administrative Templates> Windows Components> Remote Desktop Services>Remote Desktop Session Host> Connections> Select network detection on the server - set to Enabled, turn off "Connect Time Detect and Continuous Network Detect"

 

I rebooted the machine, but apparently you can just run gpupdate /force to get the change to take.

 

*According to many users it was cumulative build KB5050577 that's the actual culprit.

Edited by UP4014Fan, 29 April 2025 - 11:08 PM.

[bignerdguy]

Three possibilities:

 

1. If i read the posts right you cannot ping the Mini-PC.  If the IP actually has been changed you would need to know the correct IP for the device to connect.  look on your router and see if it lists connected devices by IP address. it should list the mini-PC. Try that to connect to it.

2. Windows Firewall on Mini-PC has been reset back to defaults.  You would need to log onto the mini-pc directly using a keyboard, mouse and monitor to change that.  A Windows update, especially a major update usually resets some settings back to defaults and this includes the firewall.  Only direct access on the PC can fix this.  This can also account for the inability to ping it as the default firewall settings blocks incoming external ping commands by default.

3. Remote access to the PC under system properties and advanced menu was set back to defaults with a Windows update.  Default setting is to not allow remote connections.  Again Direct access to the device will be needed to be able to fix this.

[Keith Bentley]

I just had the same problem. It was because of a recent Win11 update to my notebook that I use to RD to my mini. I removed the update and all is back to normal.

[bignerdguy]

I just had the same problem. It was because of a recent Win11 update to my notebook that I use to RD to my mini. I removed the update and all is back to normal.

Specifically which update was it that caused the issue?  Also can you tell what specifically it changed?

[Charles1234]

Strangly (and fortunately?), this morning, all seem to work normally. I haven't done anything.

 

I do not know if this issue is related to a Windows update. I did a Windows update yesterday night to see if it would fix the issue. The other update was perhaps done a couple of weeks ago, and I have had successful nights of imaging in between.

[Yomamma]

What will happen is the remote computer, or your computer, will have its network changed from private back to public.  I have this happen with the same setup you have . Windows will change the network type when it upgrades or when there has been a problem from what I have seen.

 

Most of the time it is my laptop computer that gets the network changed to public, and when that happens you will not be able to see your remote computer or connect to it.  It is really a PIA when this happens but it is the first thing I check now and that is usually always the problem.

 

My MeLe computer on the telescope hardly ever has a problem, although I do not update it's Windows OS as I use a separate network for my astro stuff and it has no internet access so Windows never tries to update it and I love it.

[Charles1234]

What will happen is the remote computer, or your computer, will have its network changed from private back to public.  I have this happen with the same setup you have . Windows will change the network type when it upgrades or when there has been a problem from what I have seen.

 

Most of the time it is my laptop computer that gets the network changed to public, and when that happens you will not be able to see your remote computer or connect to it.  It is really a PIA when this happens but it is the first thing I check now and that is usually always the problem.

 

My MeLe computer on the telescope hardly ever has a problem, although I do not update it's Windows OS as I use a separate network for my astro stuff and it has no internet access so Windows never tries to update it and I love it.

How do you connect to the Mele if you are not connected to the Internet on it? Are you using a hotspot? I also installed a hotspot on mine, but it is not working reliably.

[Arie]

Windows update kb5051987 is the culprit.

 I had allowed the upgrade to the latest build.

All was good and function normally.

After a few days this update came along and was installed. 
Bang. No more RDP connecting when returning to the remote pc. 
Excuse from MS: You need to properly close the session on the remote pc first.

Then on the next contact you can log in again.

Ofcourse that doesn’t work for us.

I removed this update and halted auto updates for some 6 weeks it was, I believe.

That fixed the problem for me. 
Recently I allowed the updates to be installed again.

To my great surprise RDP is functioning normally.

So I guess MS ran a fix on it. There were plenty complaints to justify that. 

Edited by Arie, 30 April 2025 - 08:59 AM.

[peterc]

I had this happen recently. After a windows update RDP got disabled. No good reason for that other than a Microsoft moment.

[deSitter]

I just had the same problem. It was because of a recent Win11 update to my notebook that I use to RD to my mini. I removed the update and all is back to normal.

 

I would not consider this a solution. Inhibiting updates is a bad idea. If you want to prevent updates as a disturbance to your system, you are better off with an old OS that is out of service and impervious to updates - this is perfectly OK as long as you don't use the machine to actively wade in the web sewer.

 

As for changing a network type from private to public, that would certainly turn off RDP availablility. But I have not seen that happen in the two machines I regularly use with RDP.

 

-drl

[deSitter]

I had this happen recently. After a windows update RDP got disabled. No good reason for that other than a Microsoft moment.

 

Given the complexity of the task, Microsoft do an outstanding job. I can count on one hand the number of serious issues I've had since Windows XP SP3 went into service.

 

Any remote node which cannot be easily physically accessed should have an out of band connection for maintenance. This is a hardware feature that is independent of the operating system. It can be as simple as a remote terminal session, or present a full GUI.

 

-drl

[Yomamma]

How do you connect to the Mele if you are not connected to the Internet on it? Are you using a hotspot? I also installed a hotspot on mine, but it is not working reliably.

I bought a router that I use for WiFi only has no cables connected to it but the power cable.  Connect your MeLe to it and have it connect on startup, then from your laptop connect to the same network.  As long as you are both designated as private networks you will see each other and can connect. You can also share the drive that collects your data and copy it over as it is imaging and look at it to make it looks good.  I take a few image files and copy them to the laptop and then run PI subframe selector to see what is up.