How to send a message from Server 2003 to Win7 Pro?

[PPettit]

I've got a Server 2003 Ent. Ed. machine running Terminal Services. I have a script that would send a message to another machine via a NET SEND command when a certain event occurred. This worked fine with XP Pro, but now I'm running Win7 Pro x64.

When I run the existing NET SEND command from the server, I get this message:
"The message was successfully sent to the domain (computername)".
However, I don't get any kind of prompt on the target machine.

Using MSG.EXE from the server:
"Error opening Terminal server (computername)"
"Error [1722}:The RPC server is unavailable."
Obviously, nothing shows up on the target machine. Also, I have no clue as to why Terminal Server is even involved.

The RPC server appears to be up and running on the Win7 machine. I've disabled any firewall apps (Windows and Symantec). I'm relatively sure that my syntax is correct.

After doing some googling, it seems like a lot of folks switched to a third-party replacement. Is this the only option for sending simple messages from Server 2003 to Win7? If not, can someone give me a clue as to what to try next?

 

[baddos]

I don't beleive windows 7 has the messenger service any more.

 

[mrdenny]

The Alerter service has been removed from Windows. You'll need to find a different technique to use.

Denny
MVP
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[PPettit]

The answer to my question appears to be that MSG.EXE is actually only intended for sending messages to Terminal Server environments. Unless I'm mistaken, even though Windows 7 Pro has limited Terminal Server capabilities (e.g. remote control via Remote Desktop), it's still not enough like a Terminal Server so it won't accept messages via MSG.EXE no matter what platform you're sending them from.

What else is everyone using as a NET SEND replacement in a Windows 7 environment?

 

[mrdenny]

I haven't used NET SEND in years. Pretty much all alerts are sent over email at this point.

Denny
MVP
MCSA (2003) / MCDBA (SQL 2000)
MCTS (SQL 2005 / SQL 2005 BI / SQL 2008 DBA / SQL 2008 DBD / SQL 2008 BI / MWSS 3.0: Configuration / MOSS 2007: Configuration)
MCITP (SQL 2005 DBA / SQL 2008 DBA / SQL 2005 DBD / SQL 2008 DBD / SQL 2005 BI / SQL 2008 BI)

My Blog

 

[PPettit]

I found the solution to my problem and thought I'd pass it along to anyone who's interested.

I was able to send messages from Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition to Windows 7 Professional via the msg.exe command. I was able to use both the computer name and the IP address. It just requires a simple registry change on the Windows 7 machine:
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server
Name : AllowRemoteRPC
Type : REG_DWORD
Value : 1 (the dafault is '0')

Once I changed the value, I was immediately able to receive messages from the server. I didn't even have to reboot.

The thing I don't like about this is that you have to know the particular user that's logged in if you want the message to reach them. You can't just send it to the machine and have the message pop up for whoever may be logged on at the time.

 

[PitiUser]

I had the same problem. MSG is not equivalent to Net Send.
I found another solution : using a 3rd party.

There are a lot, free or not such as cezeo, lanmessenger or dmessage.

At least, you can really send message to a computer and not only to a user on this machine.