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Remote Desktop Won't Connect to Your Trading VPS: Every Common Error, Decoded

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Remote Desktop Won't Connect to Your Trading VPS: Every Common Error, Decoded

Few things raise a trader’s heart rate like a Remote Desktop window that won’t open while a position is live. The first instinct is to assume the VPS is down and your EA with it. Usually it isn’t. In most cases the VPS is running fine, MetaTrader is still connected to the broker and still trading, and the problem sits somewhere between your device and the RDP service.

That distinction matters, because the right response to “my EA is offline” is very different from the right response to “I can’t see my EA.” This guide goes through the Remote Desktop errors traders actually hit, what each one means, and the fix that matches it. It starts with the one check that tells you which situation you are in.

📊 Key Stat: Your trading terminal’s connection to the broker does not go through your RDP session. Closing, losing or failing to open Remote Desktop has no effect on a running EA. The EA only stops if the VPS itself or MetaTrader stops.

Step Zero: Is the VPS Actually Up?

Before you touch any settings, find out whether you have a VPS problem or a connection problem.

  1. Check your trades from your phone. Open the MT4 or MT5 mobile app, log in to the same account, and look at recent activity. If your EA opened, modified or closed trades in the last few minutes, the VPS is alive and trading. You have an access problem, not an outage.
  2. Ping the VPS. From a command prompt, ping <your VPS IP>. Our ping guide explains how to read the result. A reply means the machine is up and reachable. Note that some servers are configured not to answer ping, so no reply is a hint, not proof.
  3. Try from a different network. Switch your phone to mobile data and try the RDP app from there. If it connects, the block is on your home or office network, not the VPS.

💡 Tip: If you do not already get MetaTrader push notifications for trades and errors, set them up today. Next time RDP fails, your phone will already tell you whether the EA is alive. See push notifications and monitoring.

Once you know which side the problem is on, match the error message below.

”Unable to Connect” and Error Code 0x204

What you see: On Windows, “Remote Desktop can’t connect to the remote computer for one of these reasons…”. On Mac (Microsoft Remote Desktop or the newer Windows App), “We couldn’t connect to the remote PC… Error code: 0x204”.

What it means: Your device never reached the RDP service. The message is generic on purpose. It covers a wrong address, a blocked port, a network outage or a machine that is off.

What to try:

  • Check the address. Make sure the IP (and port, if your VPS uses a non-standard one, written as IP:port) matches your welcome email exactly. A single transposed digit gives this error.
  • Check your own network. Corporate, hotel and public Wi-Fi networks often block outbound RDP. The mobile-data test above isolates this in seconds.
  • Check your local firewall or security software. Some endpoint protection suites block RDP clients after an update.
  • If nothing connects from anywhere, the VPS may be restarting (for example after Windows updates) or genuinely down. Give it five minutes, then contact support.

”Your Credentials Did Not Work”

What it means: The RDP service answered, but it rejected the username or password.

What to try:

  • Type the password rather than pasting it. Copying from an email often picks up a trailing space or an invisible character.
  • Check the keyboard layout. The login is checked against what the server receives, and a UK/US or AZERTY/QWERTY mismatch changes symbols like @, " and #.
  • Check the username format. For a local account, Administrator or .\Administrator is usually correct. A saved profile that adds a domain prefix can break it.
  • Clear saved credentials. If you changed the password on the VPS, your RDP client may still be sending the old one it saved.

⚠️ Warning: Do not hammer the connect button with guesses. Each failed attempt counts towards the account lockout threshold. Guess five times with a stale saved password and the next error you see will be the one below.

”The User Account Has Been Locked”

What you see: “As a security precaution, the user account has been locked because there were too many logon attempts or password change attempts.”

What it means: Windows’ account lockout policy triggered. There are two usual causes, and they need different responses:

  1. You, or a saved password, failed too many times. A client with old saved credentials can lock you out on its own, especially if it retries automatically.
  2. Somebody else did. Any server with RDP exposed to the internet is scanned constantly by automated bots trying common usernames and passwords. When enough of those attempts target your username, the lockout protects the account from being guessed, and it locks you out too.

What to try: Wait for the lockout window to expire and try once, carefully. If it happens repeatedly and you are sure it is not your own client, contact support. The account is being targeted, and the right answer is to tighten access, not to raise the lockout threshold.

✅ Best Practice: Use a long, unique password for your VPS, and never reuse the one from your broker or email. If you use a generic username such as “Administrator”, ask whether it can be changed. Bots guess that name first. Our VPS security hardening guide covers the rest.

CredSSP / “Encryption Oracle Remediation”

What you see: “An authentication error has occurred. The function requested is not supported… This could be due to CredSSP encryption oracle remediation.”

What it means: Your device and the VPS disagree about the security of the authentication protocol (CredSSP). Microsoft patched a CredSSP vulnerability in 2018. When one side has the update and the other does not, the patched side refuses to talk to the unpatched one.

What to try: Update the device that is behind. That is usually an old laptop that hasn’t had Windows updates in a while, or an outdated RDP client. You will find guides online that tell you to relax the “Encryption Oracle Remediation” policy to Vulnerable. Treat that as a last-resort, temporary workaround at most, not a fix. It weakens the protection on a machine that holds your trading credentials.

”An Internal Error Has Occurred”

What it means: Frustratingly little. This message usually comes from the client side, when the connection fails during the security handshake.

What to try, in order:

  1. Close the RDP client completely and try again. Transient failures are common.
  2. Update your RDP client, especially on Mac, where the Windows App has replaced the older Microsoft Remote Desktop.
  3. Delete and recreate the saved connection. Corrupted saved settings are a common cause.
  4. Try from a different device. If that works, the problem is local to the first device.
  5. If every device fails with the same error, the RDP service on the VPS may need a restart. That is a support request, and your EA keeps trading while it happens.

”The Number of Connections Is Limited” / “Select a User to Disconnect”

What it means: Without the separately licensed Remote Desktop Services role, Windows Server allows two simultaneous administrative sessions. If two sessions are already open, perhaps a forgotten one from your office PC plus a teammate’s, a third is refused, or Windows offers to disconnect one.

What to try: Disconnecting a session is safe. It leaves programs running. Signing out of a session is not safe, because it closes every program in that session, including MetaTrader. Our guide on how to properly disconnect from RDP explains the difference. If several people need access regularly, read sharing a trading VPS between multiple users first.

⚠️ Warning: If you kick another session off and it belongs to a user whose MetaTrader is running, disconnecting is fine. But if the prompt offers to sign them out, cancel. Signing out kills their terminals.

”No Remote Desktop License Servers Available”

What it means: Somebody installed the Remote Desktop Session Host role on the server, which enables more than two sessions. That role runs on a grace period (120 days), after which it needs Remote Desktop Services client access licences. When the grace period runs out, connections fail with this message.

What to try: Unless you actually bought RDS licences, the fix is to remove the role, not to hunt for a licence. If you cannot get in to do that, contact support.

Connected, But the Screen Is Black or Frozen

What it means: The session connected, but the display isn’t rendering. This often happens after reconnecting to a long-running session or after changing resolution.

What to try: Wait 30 seconds. Then press Ctrl+Alt+End (the RDP equivalent of Ctrl+Alt+Del) to bring up the security screen, and cancel back to the desktop. If that fails, disconnect and reconnect at a lower resolution, using the method in how to change RDP resolution. If the session feels sluggish rather than black, read why your VPS feels slow over RDP.

”The Remote Computer Requires Network Level Authentication”

What it means: The VPS requires your credentials to be checked before a full session starts (NLA), and your client is too old to do that.

What to try: Update the client. Do not turn NLA off on the server to work around an old device. NLA is one of the cheapest protections against the bot traffic described above.

🚀 Try FXVPS for $2.99. Get 7 days on the Core VPS, with support that helps with access problems like these, and cancel anytime.

Build a Fallback Before You Need It

The traders who stay calm when RDP breaks prepared for it in advance:

  • RDP clients on two devices, for example a laptop and a phone, each tested at least once.
  • Push notifications from MetaTrader, so the phone tells you the EA is alive before you start troubleshooting.
  • The MT4/MT5 mobile app logged in to the same account, so you can close or hedge a position even if you cannot reach the VPS at all. Just don’t run two EAs on one account.
  • Your welcome email (IP, username, support contact) saved somewhere you can reach from your phone.

With those in place, a failed RDP connection is an inconvenience you can fix on your own schedule, not an emergency.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does an RDP error mean my EA has stopped?

Almost never. RDP only carries your screen, keyboard and mouse. The terminal’s connection to the broker is independent. Confirm from the mobile app or push notifications before assuming anything is down.

Why do I keep getting locked out even though I haven’t tried to log in?

Either a device with an old saved password is retrying in the background, or automated bots are guessing passwords against your username. Remove old saved credentials from every device first. If lockouts continue, contact support.

Can I just disable account lockout to stop this?

You can, but you shouldn’t. Lockout is what stops password-guessing bots from eventually succeeding. The better fix is a strong unique password and, where possible, a non-default username.

Is it safe to use RDP from public Wi-Fi?

RDP traffic is encrypted, but many public networks block it outright. If you trade while travelling, keep mobile data or a personal hotspot as a backup route.

My Mac says 0x204 but my phone connects fine. What is wrong?

The VPS is fine. The problem is on the Mac or its network. Check that the saved address is correct, update the client, and try the Mac on your phone’s hotspot. Our Mac RDP guide covers the full setup.