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SCCM Remote Agent connections cause unexpected User Notification pop-up and Program Exception Rule creation in the Windows Vista Firewall


Symptoms

When establishing a remote agent connection using the System Center Configuration Manager Remote Control function, connectivity to the RcAgent.exe client process depends on TCP communications over TCP ports 2701 thru 2704.  To allow communication through the Windows Firewall it is common for administrators to create a set of Port Rules to allow TCP connections over these ports.

Unexpected behavior has been reported in the Windows Vista firewall associated with the use of TCP Port rules to allow SCCM Remote Control Traffic.  When you create TCP port rule and specify a Remote IP Range on the Scope tab of the rule properties, the end user will be prompted to allow or deny the connection.  If the user selects to allow the connection, an "Allow" Program Exception Rule will be automatically created for RCAgent.exe.  If the user selects to deny the connection, a "Deny" Program Exception Rule will be created. 

This behavior has been confirmed and occurs regardless of the format of the remote address space specified.

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Cause

As mentioned above, this issue only occurs when a value has been specified in the Remote IP Address section of the Scope tab of the Windows Firewall Rule properties.  If you remove the value, the problem will not occur.

Note: This behavior does not occur in the Windows XP Firewall.

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Resolution

This is known behavior and the following workarounds have been identified:

  1. Disable user notifications in the Windows Firewall (note: this IS NOT recommended).
  2. Create the port rules as normal, but do not specify a Remote IP scope for the rule.
  3. Create a Program Exception Rule in Windows Firewall for the client process, RCAgent.exe.

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Keywords: vkball, kb

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Article Info
Article ID : 2022075
Revision : 1
Created on : 1/8/2017
Published on : 4/7/2010
Exists online : False
Views : 156