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Q177112: Unable to Send Message to RAS Clients from RAS Admin

Article: Q177112
Product(s): Microsoft Windows NT
Version(s): WinNT:4.0
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): kberrmsg
Last Modified: 09-AUG-2001

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Windows NT Workstation version 4.0 
- Microsoft Windows NT Server version 4.0 
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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 /?" (without the quotation marks)

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

" net send /? " (without the quotation marks)

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          : kberrmsg 
Technology        : kbWinNTsearch kbWinNTWsearch kbWinNTW400 kbWinNTW400search kbWinNT400search kbWinNTSsearch kbWinNTS400search kbWinNTS400
Version           : WinNT:4.0
Issue type        : kbbug

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