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I hope you can help. I have a Windows Web Server 2008 R2 machine which I am currently setting up and going to move most of my sites over to it.

While going through the setup of it, Windows Updates, etc, I turned the firewall on. I forgot that I had remote desktop on a different port (33899) instead of the standard 3389 for security reasons, etc.

As soon as I hit the apply button I knew I did something wrong because nothing was responding in the remote desktop window. Oh great! Trying to connect again I get the worrying error message

Remote desktop can't connect to the remote computer because of the following reasons..

Is there any way I can connect to it again to change the settings, considering this server is in London and out of my control (hosted with a dedicated server provider). I don't really want to email them as 1 I will feel stupid and 2 I have already contacted them about installing Windows Server on my machine (there were troubles with the wrong ISO from Microsoft)

Many thanks in advance!

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If you've locked yourself out via the firewall and have no out-of-band management abilities, then I believe your only choice would be to contact the hosting provider.

EEAA
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I'm assuming this isn't joined to a Domain that you do control? If so, you could apply a GPO to it and wait for it to take effect.

What type of connectivity do you have to the box? RDP only? Or did they give you some sort of VPN tool and then you have access to run things like psexec to the box?

If RDP is the only port open from the service provider's firewall, and you shutdown your server's firewall too... Then... Yah, gonna have to suck it up and ask them to take care of that for you.

Blame it on the "new intern" that's working for you - works. :)

Matt
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  • Yep just RDP, I basically have full control of the server so I could install a VPN. Any recommendations just in case this happens again? :) & for future reference ;) –  Sep 24 '10 at 20:38
  • You can play a lot of games with openVPN, having it connect back to you, or you connect to it. But then your only recourse is playing with psexec or something at that point. The easiest would be something like gotomypc where you get full screen access and it keeps a relatively persistant connection going outbound that you can exploit to get back *in*. – Matt Sep 24 '10 at 20:47
  • Ahh yes logmein and gotomypc. *facepalm* Thanks for your help :) I will have to go through a list next time I setup a server and make sure I set the rules BEFORE hitting apply... –  Sep 24 '10 at 20:49
  • I think either gotomypc or logmein is free for just basic connectivity. I've used it as a backup plan with success. – Matt Sep 24 '10 at 20:50
  • No problem - we've all been there. :) – Matt Sep 24 '10 at 20:51
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If you left the Windows Management ports enabled you could use psexec and netsh to temporarily remove the firewall rule or disable the firewall altogether long enough for you to get back in.

maristgeek
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