Solved Remote Desktop Connection behaves surprisingly

I have a Windows 11 PC setup as a hub for the Remote Desktop Connection (RDP). Two other Windows 11 PCs connect to the hub as clients. Their behavior is inexplicable. I can connect to the hub within about 100 seconds after the PC reboots or awakens from sleep mode. Afterward, all connection attempts fail, reporting error 0x104. If I restart the PC or take it to sleep mode and wake up, I can connect again during this limited time.

If I stay connected for a long time, everything works fine. But as soon as I drop the connection, I cannot connect again.

The Event Log contains no entries about these connection failures.

Microsoft has published an extensive RDP troubleshooting guide. It is only partly valid, but I've followed the useful parts without any conclusion.

I believe that there is no trivial solution to this problem because the connection sometimes works and sometimes doesn't, even though I always connect in the same way.

lapetesson said:

The Event Log contains no entries about these connection failures.

Click to expand...

Do you still receive any of these Event IDs from their respective Event logs:

lapetesson said:

I believe that there is no trivial solution to this problem because the connection sometimes works and sometimes doesn't, even though I always connect in the same way.

Click to expand...

Try performing a Clean Boot to see if another program is causing conflicts at startup using this Forum's Tutorial:


and also check Task Scheduler for possible programs loaded after startup.

Also, I am not sure whether problem is on the Hub side or on one of the two Client PCs. Perhaps you could qualify your situation.

Is this network actually a simple LAN to which a few computers running Win 11 (or 10) are connected or is the 'server' actually running Windows Server? If it is running Win 11 then it is just a LAN and all the computers have equal standing - no servers or clients. If that is the situation it is essential for consistent performance to assign a fixed IP to each system, so try that. You also need to use the built-in Windows Remote Desktop Connection (RDC), not RDP.

@fixer:
It is a simple LAN with no server. I have in total four PCs, all Win 11, two Pro, and two Home. All PCs do not have the same standing. Every PC can act as a client, but only a Pro PC can act as a hub (target). Every connection is directed from the client to the hub and the PCs have different roles in a connection.

I don't use the IP addresses for connections; I use the system names. I do use the Windows Remote Desktop Connection; all observations come from this app.

@iko22:
Thank you for the answer. I've checked the Event Log once again. There are many events 4624, 4634, 4647, and 4648, corresponding to logon and logoff, all successful. My conclusion would be that the RDP connection failures are not caused by logon problems.

I've also checked the Task Scheduler. There are some scarce activities related to the update and OneDrive, all quick and successfully ending. They can by no means interfere with my RDP connection attempts.

I've also executed the Clean Boot. It is an interesting experiment, but it seems to be designed for troubleshooting other issues. Anyway, it does not change the behavior of RDP in my network: I can connect within around two minutes after the client restarts or wakes up, but not later.

Something happens after two minutes. I suppose it happens on the client PC because I can connect from another client when one client gets stalled, so the hub seems to work normally. The connection failures after two minutes occur regardless of whether I connected earlier or not. After this time, no connection is possible, period.

A minor detail is that the hub never enters sleep mode. I keep it up and running using an application because setting Sleep to Never in Settings didn't work. I've also ensured that NICs are never turned off.

The reported problem occurs only when the remote PC is addressed using its name. When you use the IP address instead, there are no disturbances, and everything works smoothly. So it is the resolution of a node name to its IP address that stops working after two minutes, not the RDP. I don't know why it happens, but my problem is solved through the use of IP addresses.

I've found that relaxing advanced sharing settings for the various networks helps things work more smoothly. Never have figure out why, though...
--Ed--

Question: For the system to which you are having difficulties connecting, is there more than one network adapter installed?

lapetesson said:

The reported problem occurs only when the remote PC is addressed using its name. When you use the IP address instead, there are no disturbances

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Rebooting your router should reset the name/IP problem. Probably best to do so when both systems are on.