Connection Problems; Redirecting a Network Printer

Win2K Terminal Services Connection Problems
If you have trouble connecting to a Windows 2000 Server Terminal Services machine and you notice Error 52 messages in the Event Log, see Microsoft article Q258021 for a description of the problem and possible resolutions. The article suggests that you reset or recreate the RDP connection, making sure that the TermDD service (which displays output for the client sessions) is running (which ensures that the RDP session's network adapter card is set to accept sessions). Alternatively, you can install a valid license pack.

Redirecting a Network Printer
When it first appeared, Microsoft article Q264039 explained why the system doesn't redirect network printers to client terminal sessions—namely, that doing so would create huge numbers of "ghost" printers on the terminal server. Microsoft has updated the article to explain how to use the Net Use command to map a network printer to a PC if you want to associate a particular network printer with a PC automatically. Note that this procedure works only on clients that can use the Net Use command. You also must load the printer drivers onto the client using a port mapped to the printer.

Win2K License Server Problems
As you probably know, in Application Server mode, Win2K Terminal Services requires that you maintain a valid license server to distribute terminal licenses. Before a license server accepts license codes, you must activate it. However, according to Microsoft article Q258045, even after you activate the license server, it might not accept license key packs if the license key is invalid (which is understandable if you type the key manually—it's a long number) or if the key is valid but the license database is damaged. The article explains how to rebuild the licensing database.

Also, when you use a Win2K terminal server across a Windows NT 4.0 domain trust relationship or in a workgroup, the Win2K terminal server might not be able to find the license server. As a result, the Win2K server queries Active Directory (AD), as it should when it can't find a license server. Of course, the NT 4.0 domain or workgroup doesn't have AD. Without a license server, the terminal server can't hand out permanent licenses. Microsoft article Q261110 explains how to edit the registry to specify a particular license server so that your Win2K terminal servers don't have to look for one.