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Windows 2008 R2 DNS issues

Recently we spun up a bunch of shiny new Windows 2008 R2 servers for testing in our lab. Everything appeared to be fine, R2 is awesome and includes a bunch of new features that make remote desktop delivery even better.

I did however find a strange problem with our new demo environment; I had no issues browsing Google, Yahoo, and any other websites. However, Microsoft related websites were not loading properly; I would try to go to microsoft.com, msdn.com, or bing.com and would be greeted with this error page.

dns

I went through the standard troubleshooting; checked DNS, checked my network configuration, checked and double-checked everything. I was getting frustrated and called my datacenter. They saw no problems. I eventually noticed that some of my servers who had their DNS set to a non-R2 2008 server did not have these issues. This lead me to believe the issue lied with R2 somehow.

After doing a bit of googling I came across a blog posting from Scott Forsyth. He noticed the same issue and got to the bottom of it. You can read his full analysis here.

The fix is simple; Disable Microsoft EDns services via the command line.

dnscmd /config /EnableEDNSProbes 0

No restart is necessary and you should be able to browse Microsoft sites with no issues.

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Posted in: General by James Hart on September 29, 2009

The “Cloud” is coming; Windows 7 Embedded Enterprise released to manufacturing

Microsoft announced today the release of their latest “Embedded” operating system. The biggest announcement to us in the cloud infrastructure field was Windows 7 Embedded Enterprise. This brings us one step closer to having a rich remote desktop experience including graphics, video, and sound delivered across the internet to a “Thin Client” device.

Currently we are testing Windows 7 with Windows 2008 R2 Server providing remote desktops. We have been very impressed with the results. The experience of streaming a remote desktop over the internet is negligible when compared to running a local operating system. We have even been able to play a Youtube video across the internet and view it locally on our PCs through a remote desktop connection. This is something that in the past was unthinkable.

I am very excited to see how the next few months develop as more and more companies realize the cloud is not going away. The development of applications and services for the cloud is taking off.

For your average business it does not make sense to spend time and money replacing your outdated desktop computers with new ones. The cloud is coming and its time to jump on board.

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Posted in: Cloud Computing, General, Windows 7 by James Hart on September 22, 2009