Remote desktop not going to correct PC

chrisatkinson2 · 2012-05-25T10:12:24.000Z

So heres the scenario.

We have user 1, trying to remote to PC 1, using pc-name1. When he remotes to it, it goes to a different PC, not PC1, but PC2, with a completely different name. He has been using IP lately to remote in but i’d like to get this resolved. Him remoting to his PC is Internal, he is not using RWW or something of the sort. Im thinking this is a DNS issue, but i am not sure how to remedy this, if someone has a good suggestion or a how-to to fix this please post!

Thanks so much,

Chris

preissner · 2012-05-25T10:17:03.000Z

Kinda a generic “odd network issues” reply:

Try

ipconfig /release

ipconfig /flushdns

ipconfig /renew

Sounds to me like it might be a funky DNS issue

Also: nbtstat -r

danmartin4112 · 2012-05-25T10:17:25.000Z

Are you using windows for DNS or your router/firewall/gateway device?

danmartin4112 · 2012-05-25T10:18:48.000Z

Paragraph wrote:

Kinda a generic “odd network issues” reply:

Try

ipconfig /release

ipconfig /flushdns

ipconfig /renew

Sounds to me like it might be a funky DNS issue

Also: nbtstat -r

You can also add “ipconfig /registerdns” as something to try. That should attempt to re-register the computer with the DNS server and (hopefully) update the record.

ranhalt · 2012-05-25T10:22:11.000Z

ping the hostname and make sure it’s resolving correctly

chrisatkinson2 · 2012-05-25T10:23:05.000Z

Paragraph, Should this be done on both PC’s or just one?

Dan, yes we are using windows for our DNS/Gateway.

Router and firewall, no

ladyinmt · 2012-05-25T10:23:17.000Z

Is the expected IP returned if you open a command prompt and type the following?

nslookup pc-name1

If not, then it seems the DNS entry for ‘pc-name1’ is incorrect in your DNS server.

You might also run an nslookup on the manually inputted IP address being used for the successful RDP connection to see if it’s different than the result from above (I suspect it is).

I hope you get it sorted out!

frej · 2012-05-25T10:47:15.000Z

I don’t know if this fits your situation, but if the pc is a laptop – and your users are like mine – they could be confusing the DNS server by repeatedly connecting on wired and wireless at the same time. With multiple records in the DNS database you have even more opportunities for a stale cache to point to the wrong location.

(In the above case I set the wireless connection so that it didn’t update DNS, BTW)

chrisatkinson2 · 2012-05-25T10:55:43.000Z

ranhalt, if i ping PC2, it is giving the same IP as the DNS record. IP X.X.X.184

Doing this for PC1, it is giving me two different IP’s.

Pinging the PC shows as X.X.X.197
DNS shows/IPconfig on this PC shows X.X.X.175

LadyinMT, PC2 is giving the correct information that the DNS server is showing.
PC1 is giving me two different IP’s as stated above.

Denebola, These are wired PC’s, no laptops.

brianherman7868 · 2012-05-25T11:17:13.000Z

sometimes you will need to use the full FQDN name of the pc I find it tipically works best for me pcname.domain.local

sabrinabennett9015 · 2012-05-25T11:22:45.000Z

we use winvnc – if you do, have user check ip by right clicking on icon, selecting statistics and giving you correct ip address.

I went through this same thing a few weeks back and it turned out that even though user could “connect” on his end, the software (winvnc) required a reinstallation.

dabeast · 2012-05-25T12:52:51.000Z

Chris65555 wrote:

ranhalt, if i ping PC2, it is giving the same IP as the DNS record. IP X.X.X.184

Doing this for PC1, it is giving me two different IP’s.

Pinging the PC shows as X.X.X.197
DNS shows/IPconfig on this PC shows X.X.X.175

LadyinMT, PC2 is giving the correct information that the DNS server is showing.
PC1 is giving me two different IP’s as stated above.

Denebola, These are wired PC’s, no laptops.

delete the .197 entry from DNS and then run ipconfig /registerdns on PC1.

Check again and see if it is resolved.

chrisatkinson2 · 2012-05-25T13:03:05.000Z

Beast,

Is there a downside to doing that? is there any consequence that if i did it, it would cause such as losing its IP, kicked off domain, etc? This is more of a curiosity question tbh, if you could let me know that would be great.

Chris

dabeast · 2012-05-25T13:19:51.000Z

Chris65555 wrote:

Beast,

Is there a downside to doing that? is there any consequence that if i did it, it would cause such as losing its IP, kicked off domain, etc? This is more of a curiosity question tbh, if you could let me know that would be great.

Chris

The only downside is while you in between steps (the deleting of the DNS record and the ipconfig command) you will not be able to resolve the ip address for that computer name.

Now - since this is a problem already, there isn’t really a down side.

Client DNS records don’t control domain membership. They are also not required for clients to be able to resolve other DNS records. This could be done without any extra downtime.

My guess on what happened - someone manually created that record some time ago and the DHCP service can’t update that record.

jerryperkinson9157 · 2012-05-25T13:22:44.000Z

Generally, you have the DNS/DHCP server thinking that the Hostname of PC1 goes to IP “X”, even when it’s IP address is really “Y”. Usually, you have one of the following will be going on:

A change in the machine name (takes time for the issue to resolve naturally, or you can go into the dns/dhcp server and delete the bad listings) The ipconfig /flushdns may well take care of it as well, I have mainly learned by doing, so quite often have missed the simplest ways

Someone moved a static ip address (from an old to new machine for example), may take a while to update on it’s own.

Various address conflicts particularly with DHCP. These usually present themselves with errors on the machines though.

Or, the tables just didn’t update at some point. This one is the most random, but seems to be the most common that isn’t first discovered first in other ways (like most of the above).

In these situations (which are basically all the ones I have run into), using the FQDN didn’t help because they were due to DNS table issues. And pinging only helps when you know what PC1’s IP really is (basically sitting at the machine and doing an ipconfig). If you don’t know the correct IP, then pinging only tells you what the DNS table has listed as the right address for the machine.

I have found some tools can help by returning the hostname of the ip address. PCFinder (www.vjgamer.com) comes to mind, though there are likely many other packages that can do the same. It can scan an IP (or range), and it gives you the actual hostname on that address. For me, it is faster than going onto the server, and has been more accurate in these cases. It has also been pretty handy to just scan the network.

If you are looking for a long term fix, something like this will help you see what ip addresses machines are actually using, and you can compare that to what the dns/dhcp servers think, and you can clean them manually if necessary, correct dhcp address pools, move static IPs, whatever.

If you are looking for a quick fix, this can help you get the ip address you really want to remote into. A tool like this won’t fix the problem, but it can greatly assist in figuring out what is going wrong.

There is an extremely small possibility that someone put an entry in the hosts file. I don’t know if that is even picked up anymore, but it was always good for a prank back in the day, or used for viruses to keep people from getting to anti-virus sites, or more legitimately so you can put in a easy to remember name for a website or hostname instead of an ip address or complicated name.

michaelstarcevic3116 · 2012-05-26T06:47:04.000Z

You also might want to check if there is a hard coded entry in the host file of the machine that is attempting the rdp session.

chrisw5146 · 2012-05-29T05:04:34.000Z

Glad to see you got this fixed. As I read the beginning post, I immediately said it was a DNS issue. Either on the forward name to IP or Reverse look up. I have to agree with JerryPerk on his answer. That will be a way to fix it for future problems. I know with managing our local DNS it takes time and trial and error tests to see what works best for the devices connecting to your network. Meaning what to set your flush settings for the cache of the DNS server. An how long a IP is kept and released by the clients or devices connecting to it.

I have also seen laptops do what was also posted in this thread, about grabbing a local wire IP address and also a Wireless address. This does make resolving to that device tricky. But is something that happens. There was a lot of good posts on this thread. Especially the IPCONFIG commands, there a network admin tools of the trade. Take care and hope your issue doesn’t come back. But if it does, at least now you know what to do to fix it.

stevemussler5835 · 2014-07-10T18:27:49.000Z

Hi i have been having a similar problem. When i try to connect to one of my servers using remote desktop i am delivered to a PC on our internal network. i’m thinking it’s a DNS issues but can not find it. I looked in the reverse lookup zone and the ip address match the names as it should. I did a nslookup in both directions and you can see my issue. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Nslookup results…

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]

C:\Users\steve>nslookup comp1

Server: server01.local

Address: 192.168.0.11

Name: comp1.local

Address: 192.168.0.179

C:\Users\steve>nslookup server02

Server: server01.local

Address: 192.168.0.11

Name: server02.local

Address: 192.168.0.179

C:\Users\steve>nslookup 192.168.0.177

Server: server01.local

Address: 192.168.0.11

Name: server02.local

Address: 192.168.0.177

C:\Users\steve>nslookup 192.168.0.179

Server: server01.local

Address: 192.168.0.11

Name: comp1.local

Address: 192.168.0.179

C:\Users\steve>