Take the 2-minute tour ×

We are running windows server 2003 at our work place. I have enabled the remote desktop connections. I have also added all the users who connect to the server(three to four people) to the RDC group of users. Many of these users are also having Administrator access.

The problem we are facing is that the connection is suddenly lost when we are working on something. Also, at times the system restarts by itself.

Is this issue related to the limit on the number of users able to connect to the system? If so, why does the system accept new connections and/or terminate the existing connections? Has this anything to do with the users having administrator access so that all have equal prority and that is why existing connections are stalled?

Also, please differentiate between console remote desktop and non console remote desktop.

share|improve this question
add comment

migrated from stackoverflow.com Aug 10 '09 at 17:07

This question came from our site for professional and enthusiast programmers.

1 Answer

up vote 3 down vote accepted

Are your users logging in from a local network or are they logging in over the internet?

If the latter, then your connections may be being dropped by your router. You need your keepalive settings switched on.

The keepalive registry key used to be in HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\TCPIP\Parameters\KeepAliveInterval (give it a DWORD Value of 20000), but I believe it's moved for 2008.

You may also find that, if you log in with the same username, then you log each other out. This can be changed in the Remote Desktop Configuration settings.

  • In terminal services configuration ...
  • Click into server settings
  • Change "Restrict each user to one session" to unticked.

Finally - If your server isn't licensed as a terminal server, then you only get 2 users allowed to log in at one time.

share|improve this answer
add comment

Your Answer


