No RDP connection through new TP-LINK Switch

[stwaltemyer]

I got a new switch in my home in order to upgrade from a TP-LINK TL-SF1008P (5-port 10/100 Mbit) to a TP-LINK TL-SG108E (10/100/1000 Mbit, but now it is causing a peculiar issue that I haven't been able to find a googlable solution for.

I work from home (Windows 10), connecting to my office's network through a VPN (Fortinet/FortiClient), and then I use Remote Desktop to use my in-office PC (Windows 7). I've been using the old TL-SF1008P for two years now with no issue. The VPN connects just fine, and the RDP has always allowed me to connect to my in-office PC on the office network.

Now, however, using the TL-SG108E, I cannot get an RDP connection. All of my normal home network stuff works normally, and I can still connect to my office's VPN - I just can't get a remote desktop connection. (I can RDP to my media PC; everything connected through the switch works just fine, and has the upgraded network speed due to the new switch, etc).

Anyone have any insight into what could be going on?

 

[boosted1g]

Do you have anything configured on that SG108E?
Your old one was a basic switch with POE
Your new one is a smart managed switch with VLAN, QoS, and other features built in.

Also have you tried uploading newest firmware to it?

I have a 108E at home, I will see if I can run RDP when I get home latter today.

 

[stwaltemyer]

Do you have anything configured on that SG108E?
Your old one was a basic switch with POE
Your new one is a smart managed switch with VLAN, QoS, and other features built in.

Also have you tried uploading newest firmware to it?

I have a 108E at home, I will see if I can run RDP when I get home latter today.

Thanks boosted. Even though the new switch is a smart managed switch, for the sake of this connection issue I've tried to make it as "dumb" as possible - I don't have any flow control enabled, no mirroring, no vlan, no QoS. Pretty much I'm just trying to rely on it's auto-negotiation.

But I'm still getting the same VPN connection success (same IP and everything). I can ping other pc's on the office network just fine. I just can't find the anomaly.

 

[boosted1g]

While I am actually talking to someone with the 108E switch:
Do you have V1 or V2, and if you have V2 can you access the Web Gui from a Win 10 computer?

I can not access Web GUI from any Win 10 machine, but windows 7, OSX, and Android all work. I can use their configuration utility just fine, but I get errors using the web gui.

 

[boosted1g]

Just for sake of troubleshooting, did you connect the machine to a different switch to make sure the switch is the problem?

Also just to make sure on same page, you can RDP to a local machine connected to that switch, but can not RDP to any PC over the VPN connection?

Your Local subnet and the VPN subnet are different right? (like you are not BOTH using 192.168.1.x)

 

[stwaltemyer]

Just for sake of troubleshooting, did you connect the machine to a different switch to make sure the switch is the problem?

Also just to make sure on same page, you can RDP to a local machine connected to that switch, but can not RDP to any PC over the VPN connection?

Your Local subnet and the VPN subnet are different right? (like you are not BOTH using 192.168.1.x)

That's right, my local subnet and the VPN subnet are indeed different. I can connect RDP over my local subnet to a media pc, but I cannot make any RDP connections over the VPN subnet.

For troubleshooting, I have tried without any switch altogether, just connecting directly to my router - that is a success for both VPN and RDP. I have tried connecting through the old switch, which is a success on both accounts. And I have even tried two other switches, both of which failed. I actually don't know exactly why the old switch is working, since it seems that any new switches are failing the RDP connection.

 

[stwaltemyer]

While I am actually talking to someone with the 108E switch:
Do you have V1 or V2, and if you have V2 can you access the Web Gui from a Win 10 computer?

I can not access Web GUI from any Win 10 machine, but windows 7, OSX, and Android all work. I can use their configuration utility just fine, but I get errors using the web gui.

I've got V2, but I actually haven't tried the web gui (wasn't aware of it). I'm just using the configuration utility.

 

[boosted1g]

Just for sake of troubleshooting, did you connect the machine to a different switch to make sure the switch is the problem?

Also just to make sure on same page, you can RDP to a local machine connected to that switch, but can not RDP to any PC over the VPN connection?

Your Local subnet and the VPN subnet are different right? (like you are not BOTH using 192.168.1.x)

That's right, my local subnet and the VPN subnet are indeed different. I can connect RDP over my local subnet to a media pc, but I cannot make any RDP connections over the VPN subnet.

For troubleshooting, I have tried without any switch altogether, just connecting directly to my router - that is a success for both VPN and RDP. I have tried connecting through the old switch, which is a success on both accounts. And I have even tried two other switches, both of which failed. I actually don't know exactly why the old switch is working, since it seems that any new switches are failing the RDP connection.

So one unmanaged switch works, but 2 others do not?

 

[stwaltemyer]

Well I figured out the solution. I'm not sure the exact reason, but when using the new switch, I cannot connect using the VPN networked computer's name. This whole time I was using the saved connection settings that I've had for two years... which was based on the computer name.

I tried to connect using the computer's local IP address, and it worked like a charm.

 

[stwaltemyer]

Just for sake of troubleshooting, did you connect the machine to a different switch to make sure the switch is the problem?

Also just to make sure on same page, you can RDP to a local machine connected to that switch, but can not RDP to any PC over the VPN connection?

Your Local subnet and the VPN subnet are different right? (like you are not BOTH using 192.168.1.x)

That's right, my local subnet and the VPN subnet are indeed different. I can connect RDP over my local subnet to a media pc, but I cannot make any RDP connections over the VPN subnet.

For troubleshooting, I have tried without any switch altogether, just connecting directly to my router - that is a success for both VPN and RDP. I have tried connecting through the old switch, which is a success on both accounts. And I have even tried two other switches, both of which failed. I actually don't know exactly why the old switch is working, since it seems that any new switches are failing the RDP connection.

So one unmanaged switch works, but 2 others do not?

For some reason, any new switches I tried would not connect using the computer name. I suspect that they would have worked, as it is working now, using the computer's IP address in the Remote Desktop connection.

Thanks for your help!

 

[boosted1g]

I see.

So the problem you are having is with DNS name resolution, but why it would work with that one particular switch is weird.
The other two switches you tried that did not work were also unmanaged "dumb" switches?

 

[stwaltemyer]

I see.

So the problem you are having is with DNS name resolution, but why it would work with that one particular switch is weird.
The other two switches you tried that did not work were also unmanaged "dumb" switches?

The two other switches that did not work were unmanaged, yes.

 

[boosted1g]

when you do ipconfig does it show your computer as having a dns suffix?

Can you do nslookup to any IP/Machine name on the VPN?, what about local network?