Problem connecting to Terminal Services 1

[Chopsy]

I have a problem connecting to Terminal Services using the Remote Desktop Connection client.

The server is Windows Server 2003, and the clients are Windows XP. We were able to use RDP to connect to the server previously, but now are getting an error message -

"The remote session was disconnected because the local computer's client access license could not be upgraded or renewed"

I've tried restarting the server, and I've tried connecting from various clients, but nothing changes. The server has terminal service licensing running, and I have tried reactivating the license, but no joy.

Any help greatly appreciated!

 

[Chopsy]

more info...

Checking the event viewer on the server, there are these messages from Terminal Services :-

- Terminal Server licensing on server has not been activated.

- The terminal server client on ClientPC has been disconnected because its temporary license has expired.

Firstly, the PC is brand new, so can't have used it's temp license already. The PC was cloned from another machine, but it's temp license is still valid for another month or so. The licensing server is showing as running and activated, although I haven't installed any licenses yet. I have tried reactivating it, but it hasn't made any difference.

 

[mlichstein]

Try deleting the MSLicensing key from HKLM\Software\Microsoft on the client that cannot connect.

Delete the entire key, including any subkeys. Then try to reconnect (no reboot necessary)

 

[Chopsy]

Absolute genius! That worked on the machine I'm working on, so I'll try it on all the other machines as well.

Any idea what caused the problem?

 

[Chopsy]

another thought... what info is actually stored in that key? If I have PCs that connect to other servers via RDC, will it cause problems for those other connections if I delete the entire key?

 

[mlichstein]

That registry key contains the actual license, which in this case was a temporary license. I'm not sure what was wrong with it, but it seems like the key is that the machine was cloned.

Temporary licenses last for 90 days...are you sure you weren't over that limit?

There shouldn't be an issue with deleting that key on machines that connect to other servers as long as the servers they connect to can contact a license server.

 

[scuzzle]

We have also recently had something like this problem. A client could connect to the Citrix Server/TS once, then when trying to connect again would get similar error messages or a Dial-Up connection error (even though it's through a LAN :O))

I had to give Full Control to the security permissions on Authenticated Users and Users on the MSLicensing registry key on all our Win2K Citrix servers

This cleared all errors nicely.