Unable to Send Message to RAS Clients from RAS Admin

Last reviewed: December 23, 1997
Article ID: Q177112

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows NT Workstation version 4.0
Microsoft Windows NT Server version 4.0

SYMPTOMS

When you attempt to send a message using Remote Access Admin to one or more of the Remote Access Service (RAS) clients who are connected to your RAS server, you may receive the following error:

   Cannot send message to user <username> because the messenger service
   is not started on the remote computer or the remote computer is not
   capable of receiving messages.

If your server is running Routing and Remote Access Service (RRAS) you may receive the following error:

   Messages cannot be sent to the selected client, because the messenger
   service is not running on the client.

NOTE: With both cases, the Messenger Service is running on both the RAS or RRAS server and the RAS client. You can also use the NET SEND command at a command prompt to successfully send messages either to the remote computer or to the remotely connected user.

RESOLUTION

To work around this issue, you will need to use Net.exe to send messages to RAS clients. For more information on using Net.exe type, the following at a command prompt:

   net /?

For more information on using the NET SEND command, type the following at a command prompt:

   net send /?

The following example would send a message that displays "Logoff in 5 minutes" to the connected user, JoeUser:

   net send JoeUser "Logoff in 5 minutes"

NOTE: Those options that rely on broadcast-based messages will fail. Because RAS does not forward broadcast-based messages, the following Net.exe commands will fail:

net send /DOMAIN:<domain name>
net send *

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Windows NT version 4.0. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

Additional query words: announcement
Keywords : kbbug4.00 nthowto ntnetserv NTRAS ntrouter NTSrvWkst kberrmsg
Version : WinNT:4.0
Platform : winnt
Issue type : kbbug

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Last reviewed: December 23, 1997
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