Terminal Services Connection Failure--Licensing Problem??

[ShawnF]

First let me say I am no expert in this stuff, so please bear with me if I sound like I don't know what I'm talking about (I probably don't).

Anyway.... About 3 months ago we had a local computer firm build and install 2 new servers, one being Exchange/Terminal Services/File/Print server, and the other being SQL. Our third server is a Merak mail forwarder. We intitally set up Terminal Services with two users and connected just fine. One user was Windows 98 first ed, and the other was WinME. After a week or so, the two working users of Terminal Services were receiving messages after they logged onto the server desktop saying their license has expired and to get a new one (yet Terminal Services and all functions within worked just fine after clicking on ok). I contacted the vendor that built and installed our servers. He said we were using the free 90 trial of Terminal Services and that we didn't have to purchase licenses yet for the non-2000 clients. So, he said in order to get rid of the error that was popping up he had me uninstall the Licensing Server for Terminal Services. He said everything would work fine during our "trial period" and the error would go away.

Within the next month or so I tried creating 3 more Terminal Services clients. One of them is a Win98 SE, another is Win98 1st ed, and the last is Windows 2000 Prof. At first I thought I was making mistakes becuase I had some slight trouble setting up one of the previous machines and had to play around with the dial-up properties of the VPN connection and ISP connection (require encrypted password settings etc...). The only machine I could get to connect was the 2000 prof machine. The others abosolutely refuse to connnect. I tried every possible combination of things checked in the dial-up properties of the ISP and VPN, and also the TCP/IP properties of each. Most of the time a change would no longer allow me to ping the server. I have even dropped off one of our laptops at the vendor and they've had it for almost 3 weeks with no success.

I did not associate the removal of the License Server with this problem (in fact I forgot about it), and the vendor that installed our servers did not even mention that association as well. However after reviewing some Terminal Services info, I'm wondering if that really is the problem? I've read about a temperary license issued to a client that logs on for the first time, and that a regular license is not issued until the second successful log on. We cannot even achieve the first log on. The connection times out on the non-2000 professional machines.

On the non-2000 prof machines, I can connect with an ISP, connect with the VPN, and ping the server, ping other work stations, and ping from a workstation back to the client just fine. But the Terminal Services window just times out when it tries to connect. One more tidbit of information.... In the Terminal Services window under Available Services, the Terminal Server will not list itself and if I click to try and expand the directory it just says there are no Terminal Servers available. On the machines that DO connect just fine, the Terminal Server name will pop up in this window before I even try to connect.

So, my real questions are this: is the removal of the License Server during the 90 day trial period going to prevent any new 1st time connecting non-2000 prof clients from connecting? If so, what steps must I take to reinstall the License Server? Will it destroy the current licenses given to the two working clients? I hate to jepordize the two clients that ARE connecting just fine, as his connection and programs he accesses are used several times a day and he will be severely ticked if I cause problems for him (bummer for me).

Keep in mind I didn't install the software on the servers and I'm not sure of the steps to take for (re)installation of the license server.

 

[dmose]

what mode of TS are you running? Configure it to run in 'remote administrator' mode and you shouldn't have any licensing problems, just the limitation of 2 concurrent connections (which works out in your case since you only have 2 clients)

 

[ShawnF]

hello, thanks for the speedy response! We are running TS in application server mode. We actually have 5 users that will need to connect to Terminal Services (that's why I was trying to set up 3 more users). These users connect with TS to access our customer database. They are remote users located across the country. The reason we selected Terminal Services vs. Citrix or [fill in the blank] is becuase it took the least setup time and it was basically free to try out during the 90 day period. The remote users that have been evaluating the Terminal Services connection have decided they liked it and want to continue using it, although we still have a month or so left in our 90 day evaluation. I was simply trying to get more remote users set up to get more feedback on their interpretations of TS and whether it's something they want to stick with.

Thanks,

Shawn F.

 

[Guest_imported]

Shawn

I have always had problems with the licensing on Terminal server, it's not real robust and doesn't ever work the same way twice on each install I have done.

One way I have been able to get the server working in many cases (but not all) is to remove the following key from the client system:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\MSLicensing\HardwareID

After you delete this key, if it is a licensing issue, the TS will request a license again from th license server and re-issue it to the client device. This has worked in 9 out of 10 licensing issues that resulted in the "unable to connect to terminal server" message.

Hope it helps, good luck
Doug...

 

[ShawnF]

Thanks! Good information-- I was instructed to uninstall the license server though, and none of the clients that have the connection problems have ever connected before and don't even have an initial license to delete and re-issue? Without the license server, is it impossible for any new clients to connect at all and only previously successful clients can continue to connect?

 

[danielrnz]

Shawn

What your local shop has told you is wrong. The terminal services licensing server has to be installed for clients to log in. if you dont have a licensing server all sorts of things go wrong. what you need to do is reinstall the licensing server on either machine, its doesnt matter. that should enable you to log the new and exsisting clients back on. this however doesnt solve your licensing issues. the way it works is that for every non windows 2000/xp client that is logging on to the terminal server you need a client access license. windows 2000/xp both come wwith a terminal services CAL builtin. with what doug has said above you can get around the CALs for the legacy clients by running that reg bit in a batch job every boot up or what ever which means you have unlimited "trials" although as a ms solution provider we dont condone that sort of thing we just happen to know about it

Hope that clarifys things a little

regards
Daniel

 

[NickFerrar]

As the guy above says you definetly do need a licence server running if you want to allow access in application mode.

Once you re-install the licence server make sure the server is fully patched to.