[2.1.0.119] - StartRemoteControl does nothing from 2003 server

[Robert Gijsen]

Using VB.NET I have issues initiating remote control from our 2003
standard sp2 x86 servers (don't know about other 2003 versions as we
don't run them anymore). We have a few 2003 servers left and found
that cassia does nothing at all when trying to remote a session from a
2003 server. Doesn't matter if the session resides either on a 2003,
2008 or 2008R2 server. It doesn't throw an error or exception either,
it just does nothing and the program just continues running. I wrote a
little test-code:

Dim TSServer As ITerminalServer
Dim sessions
Dim response
Dim TSManager As New TerminalServicesManager()
TSServer = TSManager.GetRemoteServer("2003TESTBOX")
TSServer.Open()
sessions = TSServer.GetSessions
For Each Session As ITerminalServicesSession In sessions
If Session.UserName.ToUpper = "ROBERTTEST" Then
response = MsgBox(Session.UserName & " " &
Session.SessionId, vbYesNo)
Select Case response
Case vbYes
Label1.Text = Session.UserName
Label2.Text = Session.SessionId
Session.StartRemoteControl(ConsoleKey.Tab,
RemoteControlHotkeyModifiers.Control)
Case vbNo
MsgBox("no remote")
End Select

End If
Next


As you can see this connects to 2003TESTBOX and looks for the
ROBERTTEST user. If found it shows a box with username and sessionID
just as a check and clicking yes should start the remote. This works
fine when running from 2008 or 2008R2 but as said running from 2003
doesn't do anything at all.
I am missing the catch here I guess.. Any help?

Regards,
Robert

[Dan Ports]

Robert,

Cassia is using an undocumented API call (WinStationShadow) to start remote control on older (pre-Vista SP1) platforms, so there may be kinks in the implementation.

Does the equivalent remote control command work on your 2003 server from the command line ("shadow xxx /server:yyy...")? Also, what version of the RD client are you using to connect to the session in which you are starting remote control and what version of the RD client are you using to connect to the session being remote controlled?

Dan

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Cassia Users" group.
To post to this group, send email to cassia...@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to cassia-users...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cassia-users?hl=en.

[Robert Gijsen]

Hi Dan,

thanks for your attention. On the 2003 server RDP client 6.0.6001 (RDP 6.1) is used. On the 2008R2 SP1 it's 6.1.7601 (RDP 7.1). Shadowing works to that extend that it asks the user to accept the remote-control. However then I get a protocol error, which I will try to sort out. Using Cassia though I don't even get the 'accept remote control' question. Could that be related to each other?

Robert

[Dan Ports]

Robert,

I think there is a bug in the way WinStationShadow is called right now, but when I corrected it, I got the same behavior as shadow.exe and the same behavior you are describing -- the user would be prompted to accept remote control, but then after accepting it the RD client would be disconnected due an encryption error.

If you can figure out how to make shadow.exe work, my fix (which I haven't committed yet) should make it work with Cassia as well.

Dan