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

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 This could be caused by an outdated entry in the DNS cache.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.

Solution 1:

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.

Solution 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