How To Remotely Shut Down Windows XP Computers From A Linux Server

I followed this Howto step by step, and I am pretty sure I didn't miss anything. Unfortunately, when I issue the command from the linux box I get a message reading "Shutdown of remote machine succeeded" however nothing happens in the Windows box, not even the message is displayed.

Here are the specifications of the boxes:

• Dell Optiplex 755, Windows XP SP3
• Fedora 16 x86_64, samba 1:3.6.3-78.fc16

Code:

$ ping 192.168.1.126
PING 192.168.1.126 (192.168.1.126) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 192.168.1.126: icmp_req=1 ttl=128 time=0.134 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.126: icmp_req=2 ttl=128 time=0.089 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.1.126: icmp_req=3 ttl=128 time=0.088 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.126: icmp_req=4 ttl=128 time=0.089 ms
^C
--- 192.168.1.126 ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 4 received, 0% packet loss, time 2999ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.088/0.100/0.134/0.019 ms

Code:

$ net rpc SHUTDOWN -C "Being remotely shutdown" -f -I 192.168.1.126 -U mcpc%

Shutdown of remote machine succeeded

Still no joy .

 

Could it be a firewall issue? Please check the Windows firewall.

 

Thanks for the reply.

I followed the instructions, disabled simple file sharing, allowed the XP host to accept echo requests from the firewall settings. I also enabled the user specifically to issue remote forced shutdown from the local policy configuration, although he belonged to the administrators group. If it s a firewall issue, I must be missing something.

 

Are both computers in the same network? If not, you should check your router settings.

 

I am sorry for the late reply, but the answer is yes. They are in the same network and the IPaddresses are set manually and fixed (i.e. no DHCP): 192.168.1.121 for the linux box and 192.168.1.126 for the windows one.

 

Have you tried to disable the Windows firewall for testing purposes?

 

Yes I did, and it doesn't work. Neither the message is displayed, nor the XP box shuts down.