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Jim McKeeth
Asked: 2010-02-13 09:40:10 +0800 CST

Remote Desktop - remote computer that was reached is not the one you specified

  • 772

We just setup some new Windows 2008 R2 servers and we are unable to Remote Desktop into them from our Windows 7 desktops. Remote desktop connects, but after we provide credentials we get:

The connection cannot be completed because the remote computer that was reached is not the one you specified. This could be caused by an outdated entry in the DNS cache. Try using the IP address of the computer instead of the name.

If we connect from Windows 7 to a machine not running Windows 2008 R2, or from a machine not running Windows 7 to the Windows 2008 R2 server, it works fine. Likewise if we connect to the Windows 2008 R2 server from Windows 7 via the IP address then it works fine (although that causes other problems later).

I've only found one other mention of someone having this problem, so I don't think it is just our network.

Any suggestions on how to connect from Windows 7 to Windows 2008 R2 via DNS? Both are 64-bit.

Update: Turns out it does not need to be R2 to get the error. We have another server that is Windows 2008 R1 64-bit that also fails.

windows-server-2008 remote-desktop domain-name-system windows-7 windows-server-2008-r2

6 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    It appears this was at least partially related to the clock on the domain controller being off. Once the time was corrected then it worked.

    • 17

  2. Have you tried flushing the dns cache?

    ipconfig /flushdns

    Sounds like the problem lies somewhere in the DNS.

    1. Check normal name lookup through DNS.
    2. Check reverse DNS lookup on the IP address of the Windows 2008 R2 machine.
    3. Examine the DNS records created for the servers / windows 7 machines on the DNS server.
    4. Try disabling IP6 on both machines.

    Reference this

    Time and again we see the IPv6 stack operating under the hood, having a silent affect on applications. One area we have seen this is in DNS calls for application servers. Depending on the application and specific stack in use, the client may make DNS calls over IPv4 requesting the IPv6 address of application servers

    • 6

  3. Yes, make sure the time on the target server is accurate. It has to be within 5 minutes of the DC usually or servers and workstations start to act funny, though it should be exact. I corrected the time on my newly reformatted target server (2008 not R2) and immediately connected afterwards from my Win7 PC.

    • 5

  4. To fix this issue login to the affected server using IP address and run the following cmd,

    • net stop w32time
    • net start w32time

    I believe this will fix the issue.

    • 4

  5. This can happen if you use a certificate and the names don't match.

    • 1

  6. The solution i had to fix this problem was..make sure you dont have the connection broker role installed on both servers. Even if you do, make sure that load balancing is only checking and working on ONE server. (Which is the connection broker)

    • 0