During the process of connecting to a remote server, the Remote Access Connection Manager and the RAS server on the remote computer perform several steps to establish the connection. Each of these steps is identified by a connection state. The RASCONNSTATE enumeration is a set of values that correspond to these connection states. The connection states can be divided into the following three groups:
| Running states | The running states are the parts of the connection operation that RAS handles automatically, such as connecting to the necessary devices, authenticating the user, and waiting for a callback from the remote server. Unless an error occurs, the RAS client need take no action other than to pass the notification on to the user. |
| Paused states | The paused states occur when the remote server pauses the connection operation to get additional input from the user. During a paused state, the user can type a callback number, a different user name and password if the user authentication fails, or a new password if the old one has expired. |
| Terminal states | The terminal states occur when the connection has been successfully established, the connection operation has failed, or the connection has been broken by a RasHangUp call. |
There are several mechanisms that a RAS client can use to determine the current state of a connection operation. When a RAS client executes the RasDial function asynchronously, the Remote Access Connection Manager sends progress notifications to the client's notification handler whenever the connection state changes. In addition, the client can use the RasGetConnectStatus function to get the current state of any RAS connection operation.