Help with Windows Server RDP Disconnects

[MikeAten]

Hey y'all. I've set up a server at my job for our accounting to use QuickBooks at multiple locations and I have been absolutely stumped. The server is accessed via RDP sessions, no virtualization. When on a remote network, we will get disconnects every couple of minutes, however on the local network there are no connectivity issues. The server is forwarded through the router and I'm thinking the router itself may be the problem. The event logs aren't telling me anything, the sessions are not limited. How can I tell if it's the router? Or maybe you guys have some other guesses at what the problem is. Thanks in advanced 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Is this going though wan? Im guessing this is a network issue. Do you control the full network path between the clients and server, or is thier a isp?

[MikeAten]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Is this going though wan? Im guessing this is a network issue. Do you control the full network path between the clients and server, or is thier a isp?

Yes, it's just your regular isp connection. I don't think it's bandwidth though, it's 100down/20up

[Electronics Wizardy]

2 minutes ago, MikeAten said:

Yes, it's just your regular isp connection. I don't think it's bandwidth though, it's 100down/20up

Have you tried the clients using a different endpoint, maybe test at your house or somthing? See what end the problem is on.

 

Is this a buiness grade connection?

[MikeAten]

27 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Have you tried the clients using a different endpoint, maybe test at your house or somthing? See what end the problem is on.

 

Is this a buiness grade connection?

Yeah, its Comcast Business. I've tried from home and a few different office locations and its the same result

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, MikeAten said:

Yeah, its Comcast Business. I've tried from home and a few different office locations and its the same result

do you get packet dropps when pulling data in from other sources?

[MikeAten]

13 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

do you get packet dropps when pulling data in from other sources?

I can't find any packet loss. I was just talking with the department that uses it and they say it's more frequent when there are more people logged in. However it still never disconnects on the local network. 

[Mikensan]

Make sure you have 3389 both TCP and UDP. Before connecting you can specify the type of connection, try dial up and see if it lasts longer. 

 

The best solution would be to VPN in first, then RDP to the server - exposing 3389 isn't a best practice. I'm assuming because this accounting related, there is PII, which you should definitely protect.

 

 

The one thing that is making me curious is a normal interuption will cause RDP to retry the connection, not totally drop it. This actually sounds like somebody else is trying to log in while you're already logged in. What error specifically are you seeing?

[MikeAten]

8 hours ago, Mikensan said:

Make sure you have 3389 both TCP and UDP. Before connecting you can specify the type of connection, try dial up and see if it lasts longer. 

 

The best solution would be to VPN in first, then RDP to the server - exposing 3389 isn't a best practice. I'm assuming because this accounting related, there is PII, which you should definitely protect.

 

 

The one thing that is making me curious is a normal interuption will cause RDP to retry the connection, not totally drop it. This actually sounds like somebody else is trying to log in while you're already logged in. What error specifically are you seeing?

1

I am aware of the risks of exposing a port, to help that somewhat I did mask the port on our gateway to something more obscure than 3389 and a VPN is definitely in the plans once I can get it to work properly. I attached the window that appears 

[Mikensan]

On 3/7/2019 at 7:17 PM, MikeAten said:

I am aware of the risks of exposing a port, to help that somewhat I did mask the port on our gateway to something more obscure than 3389 and a VPN is definitely in the plans once I can get it to work properly. I attached the window that appears 

Ah ok, that dialog box makes more sense for an interuption. Does your firewall have any timeout settings for TCP connections? Is there a consistency to when this happens or how long the connection lasts between drops?

 

Roger that on the exposed port - recently I read where the source code for RDP may have hit the wild so there may be more vulnerabilities coming.