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I've been introducing myself to Terminal Services and I had a question regarding a session, specifically the rdp-tcp session that's established by default ...

C:\Documents and Settings\BMC>query session
 SESSIONNAME       USERNAME                 ID  STATE   TYPE        DEVICE
 console           Administrator             0  Active  wdcon
 rdp-tcp                                 65538  Listen  rdpwd
>rdp-tcp#12        BMC                       1  Active  rdpwd

I'm assuming this session relates to the RDP protocol in some fashion, (obvious by the session's name and state). Could anyone ellaborate on this, or point me to some related reading material?

Additionally, if I choose to reset session the rdp-tcp session, all sessions (with the exception of console) will be logged off and the rdp-tcp session will be re-established under a new ID. This seems like a quick and dirty way to logoff all sessions ... yet it just doesn't seem right. Is there any side-effects, quirks, etc. that can occur when resetting this session?

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: Understanding the Remote Desktop Protocol

2 Answers 2

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The RDP-TCP Listener "listens" for inbound RDP requests, then assigns them appropriate other port numbers. So someone would connect on port 3389 and then the client and server would negotiate another port to continue the conversation.

The reason it exists at all is that it lets you set properties that affect all users that connect through that listener. Keep in mind that you can also have multiple listeners if you had different NIC's with different needs (though I can't think of a scenario now).

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  • is that true? "So someone would connect on port 3389 and then the client and server would negotiate another port to continue the conversation" There is another port that is used after 3389 sets up the communication? I have a firewall that only allows through 3389 for RDP, how could this possibly work? I also block all outgoing ports.
    – Matt
    Jul 7, 2009 at 22:20
  • @Matt that's always the way I thought it worked with TCP/IP and having multiple clients with protocols like RDP. The client suggests a port (or the server suggests one) and they continue the conversation there, so that the port can be freed up to listening to new requests. I haven't been able to find any web links on this topic so I could be wrong.
    – Adam Brand
    Jul 8, 2009 at 16:22
  • @AdamB yeah if you find any weblinks I would be VERY interested because I might need to examine my firewall a little closer :) I do know that other ports are used for file sharing (printers too I think).
    – Matt
    Jul 8, 2009 at 20:55
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RDP-TCP Listener does in fact represent the protocol and the biggest side-effect of resetting it while endusers are logged in is potential loss of data, this is also why it is not recommended to just use the shutdown button on a terminal server. Instead, it is best to utilize the tsshutdn command so that you can notify all users that they will be logged out and the system will restart in XX seconds (default is 60 seconds).

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  • I favorited this question just on your response and the tsshutdn command. I will be using that in the future.
    – Matt
    Jul 7, 2009 at 22:18
  • Thanks for responding. I'll keep the tsshutdn command in mind ...
    – cookbr
    Jul 8, 2009 at 12:29

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