Test if RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) Port is Open using PowerShell

Using PowerShell Test-NetConnection to Test RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) Port 3389

Open a PowerShell command line by entering into the windows search bar PowerShell and select PowerShell from the items list.  or if your more familiar with access the normal command line, open a command prompt and once opened, type PowerShell and hit enter. You will see your prompt change to PS C:\> 

 Within either the PowerShell prompt or PowerShell in a command window, enter the following command. Change the IP address or computer name to match the system you are testing for RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) port 3389.  

PS C:\> Test-NetConnection ip-or-computername -Port 3389 

Hit enter, you'll see a green bar across the top for a moment stating "waiting for response".  

The result will look similar to the following. 

If successful, TcpTestSucceeded : True will be displayed on the bottom line of the output results. 

This method can be used to test for other open ports you may be inclined to check if connectivity over the network is available. 

HP NC373i: The network link is down

This error would appear in the system log of the server almost everyday in the morning - HP NC373i: The network link is down . Never during the day such as late afternoon or evening. The error would occur early in the am hours juts before and at times when employees juts start reporting to work. Event id4, source l2nd.

The driver version was not updated yet. The possible solution is checking and disabling power save mode for the NIC. The server was running windows 2003 server standard edition on an HP Proliant series server hardware platform. The next step will be to update the driver version. There have been TCP offload problems with some drivers. The version installed on this server was fairy new but an update was available.

Sonicwall Received notify: INVALID_ID_INFO

Sonicwall Received notify: INVALID_ID_INFO

I wanted to add this little piece of knowledge to the online community and hope it's found useful for someone. While working with some Sonicwall firewalls, I needed to create a VPN tunnel between two units. It was a basic and simple VPN that was mostly comprised of default settings. The VPN tunnel wasn't coming up for me and in the log there was the message: Received notify: INVALID_ID_INFO This was an interesting message and it really had nothing to do with the identification of the tunnel or addresses or, SA name or description, or even with the remote firewall's names or descriptions. It was caused by having both of the Sonicwalls in Aggressive mode for Phase 1 of the tunnel establishment. Switching both to Main mode solved the problem. The setting can be found in the VPN policy Proposals Tab.

Once this change was done, the VPN came right up and the two sites were communicating with each other. This is a setting that can catch some one off-guard and the message that inserted into the log can be deceiving. It can make one think the the name of something is incorrect. Sonicwall's support can have you running in circles too.

As a reminder:

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