Vista - Remote desktop can not find remote computer

Hi - I'm a PC & Vista rookie & having a network issue I'm hoping to find some help with. I'm running Vista Home Premium 64 bit on a new HP pavilion laptop. I'm trying to log into my work system remotely. The error I'm getting is "This computer can't connect to the remote computer. Remote desktop cannot find the remote computer. Type the computer name or IP address again, and then try connecting" I've tried the help desk at work, they say they know there has been issues with people loggin in with Vista, but its been resolved. But they have not actually been able to help me log in. They are running Windows NT.

Thanks for any help,
Mike

Your work machine is almost certainly behind some sort of firewall or router which makes direct access to it from the internet impossible. At least, that's how it _should_ be protected!

I assume that you've got to log on to a work VPN server first? Is that successful and are you able to access other resources on the work network such as file servers?

What OS is the target (work) machine you're trying to access? It may not have remote desktop functionality enabled.

Hey H2SO4, thanks for responding. I have logged in from my home network on a borrowed laptop running Windows XP, so remote access on the work machine is definitely enabled. The office uses Windows NT. When I log in to work, I initially log into something called web connect which seems to let me in fine, I then have to enter my actual ID to log into the "virtual machine", and that seems to work fine. at that point, I am prompted to choose between 2 terminal services (options) & when I choose one of them, that is when I am getting the error specified in my original post. Thanks again for any help.

Sounds like the target machine is an NT4 Terminal Server ("Hydra").

The "Web Connect" software is probably a VPN client in some form. There are several solutions with variations on that name.

The RDP client built into Vista is much better and newer than the (default) one in XP, so that shouldn't be holding you back either.

About the only thing which immediately springs to mind is the firewall on the Vista box. Try temporarily disabling all firewalls, the in-built one as well as any others you may have installed, and check whether that makes any difference.

If not, try accessing other resources on the corporate network once the VPN has connected - file servers, printers, app servers... anything and everything that helpdesk thinks you should be able to access in that configuration, just to check whether the problem is specific to RDP.

Thanks for trying to help. They've finally confirmed to me
that their application is not compatible
with 64 bit vista. Looks like I'll be returning
the computer

Presumably the VPN client doesn't have a 64-bit driver. I'm not entirely clear on that though.

Good luck with it, whatever happens.