There could be plenty of reasons for being unable to connect to Windows VPS via a Remote Desktop. In this article, we have compiled some possible causes of this issue along with their solutions.
Local Network Problems
Do not forget to check that your machine has live internet connectivity while you attempt to connect to your VPS through RDP. You may face slowness in remote desktop connections or intermittent connectivity due to a poor Internet connection. Here are some
common problems with Remote Desktop connection and their solutions. If you are sure that your Internet connection is perfectly fine, switch to the next solution.
Check VPS Resource Usage
Ensure your VPS has enough free resources to serve incoming remote desktop requests. Most of the time, when we experience such Remote Desktop issues, we swiftly check the resource usage of that VPS. Please note that you will not be able to connect to your VPS when...
(i) You do not have enough disk space left to perform necessary OS operations,
(ii) vCPUs are 100% utilized or
(iii) VPS RAM is occupied by nearly 100%.
Check Your Local System Firewall
Check if your local machine firewall is blocking outgoing Remote Desktop connections. Please make sure that the RDP port must be kept open in the local system firewall to be able to connect to Windows VPS.
How to Determine If Firewall is Blocking Remote Desktop Port?
Run the following command in your local system command prompt to determine whether the Remote Desktop port is blocked or not.
telnet localhost Remote-desktop-port
// You will find the Remote Desktop port in the VPS login details.
OR
telnet 127.0.01 Remote-desktop-port
// You will find the Remote Desktop port in the VPS login details.
If you see a local machine firewall refusing outgoing RDP connections, your RDP port might be blocked.
This article will guide you on how to open a port in your system firewall. Alternatively, you can disable the local system firewall temporarily and try to connect to Windows VPS. Check out
this article to enable/disable Windows firewalls.
Determine If Your ISP is Blocking Remote Desktop Port
From the command prompt, run the following command to determine if your ISP is blocking outgoing Remote Desktop connections.
telnet VPS-IP-address Remote-Desktop-Port
// You will find the VPS IP address and port in the VPS login details.
If you receive a message like the following, your ISP is not blocking remote desktop connections.
Trying 192.168.1.1...
Connected to 192.68.1.1.
Escape character is '^]'.
If you receive the following message after a long delay, it indicates that your ISP is blocking the Remote Desktop connections.
telnet: Unable to connect to remote host: Connection refused
Alternatively, you can try to connect to your VPS using another ISP service provider. If you could connect to your VPS successfully from another ISP, your existing ISP is certainly blocking the Remote Desktop port. In such a case, you can ask them to unblock the RDP top port.
Check If the Windows VPS firewall is Blocking Remote Desktop Port
There are very rare chances of the VPS firewall blocking the incoming RDP connections unless you have tightened your VPS security and made some changes to your firewall. If you have made any recent changes in the VPS firewall, revert them back. In case you are unsure what changes have been made, you can submit a trouble ticket from your
Client Area. We will temporarily disable the VPS firewall and check if we can connect to your VPS through a remote desktop. If you have any other suggestions or solutions to fix this issue, you are welcome to share them with us.
