Windows Server 2003 – Increase Maximum Concurrent Remote Connections

remote desktopremote-accesswindows-server-2003windows-terminal-services

I am trying to allow more than the default of 2 concurrent remote connections to a server running Windows Server 2003.

Background:

I went to "Start" => "Administration Tools" => "Terminal Services Configuration"

I opened up the "Properties" of "RDP-tcp" in the connections tree and selected the "Network Adapter" tab:

"Unlimited connections" is grayed out
In "Maximum connections" I can change the value to "1" using the arrows
However, I can not increase the value above "2" with the arrows
I typed in 4 and clicked apply. But the value did not stick.

Is this a licensing issue? If not, how do I allow more than 2 remote session?

Best Answer

This is a licensing issue. W/o purchasing Terminal Services CALs you're limited just as you've seen to two (2) RDP connections.

(You can sort of cheat and get one more session, BTW, by using the "/admin" or "/console" switch on the Terminal Services client.)

Related Solutions

Windows Server 2003: decrease maximum number of concurrent sessions in RDP

For those who cannot find: Start Menu>Administrative Tools>Server Settings as suggested above: do this.

Go to start: help and support: search "Restrict Each user to one session" and choose the option "Limit users to one remote session : Terminal Services". Then choose the "Using Group Policies (best practice)" heading.

Follow those instructions to limit the number of remote connections for users to a single one (and someone else logging into that account will kick off the person currently using it and take over their session).

Hope this helps

Increase number of allowed remote desktop connections

If you run into the problem of not being allowed into the server because the connections are full (and you know it's due to connections left hanging), you can use the command prompt commands qwinsta and rwinsta to query and terminate sessions.

Like so:

> qwinsta /SERVER:xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
SESSIONNAME       USERNAME                 ID  STATE   TYPE        DEVICE
console                                     0  Conn    wdcon
rdp-tcp                                 65536  Listen  rdpwd
rdp-tcp#14        Administrator             1  Active  rdpwd

...and then terminate the desired session (I'm terminating the last row on the list above here):

> rwinsta 1 /SERVER:xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Windows Server 2003: decrease maximum number of concurrent sessions in RDP

Increase number of allowed remote desktop connections

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