Using Windows Server 2016 Essentials setup with the standard (Microsoft provided) <server>.remotewebaccess.com domain for remote access - for the past few days DynDNS has been failing. Are there wider issues with supporting services? If I try to remove the current domain so that I can setup again or setup a manual domain it prompts for my user name, checks password but then fails. If I try to simply setup my own domain, then the request certificate process just hangs. Are we seeing the deprecation of remotewebaccess.com and the related services, or are there just issues around it at present?

Maybe the solution from this thread works for you too: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/319165/remotewebaccesscom-down-again.html?page=2&pageSize=10&sort=oldest There are some powershell comands to run, explained here: https://sbsland.me/category/computers-and-internet/troubleshooting/

I have the same problem, the repair function reports that the domainservice ist not reachable since at least for two days.

Yes still not fixed :-( Minor issue for me as my broadband has fixed IP addresses, but annoying nag through the server status emails... I must admit that this had me start wondering whether they might be thinking of deprecating this service given that the Essentials Experience stopped further development with 2016 (with effective final "end of life" next year) --- so it has made me consider whether I should be moving to using my own domain (which I have) for this capability, even though this means more work and managing certificate updates rather than the system doing it for me. It would be nice if we could not only get a response from Microsoft on the problem (and fix) and maybe even have a simple service status dashboard for these services, but also get a clear statement on how long this service will remain available and supported.

It appears that this only effects 2016 servers not 2012 or 2012 R2. I support twelve 2016 Essentials servers and three 2016 Standard servers running the Essentials role and every one of them is having this problem. None of my 2012 or 20212 R2 servers are though. The warning has appeared in the Health reports of these servers every day starting on 3/15/21.

i thing, it starts with the last patch from 15.03.... how ever, its an MS Problem an wie can do nothing in our home office!!!

Are the problems with remotewebaccess.com domain and Dynamic DNS service?

Andrew Macaulay 141

Using Windows Server 2016 Essentials setup with the standard (Microsoft provided) <server>.remotewebaccess.com domain for remote access - for the past few days DynDNS has been failing.

Are there wider issues with supporting services?

If I try to remove the current domain so that I can setup again or setup a manual domain it prompts for my user name, checks password but then fails.
If I try to simply setup my own domain, then the request certificate process just hangs.

Are we seeing the deprecation of remotewebaccess.com and the related services, or are there just issues around it at present?

David JonesIII 1 Reputation point

2021-05-31T07:34:05.227+00:00

Where do you put the xxxx.REG file. I'm having the same problem with 2012 after upgrading my router.
.
Andrew Macaulay 141 Reputation points

2021-05-31T08:07:22.41+00:00

Either double click on the file and it will run the import of the file using the Registry Editor (regedit.exe) or run regedit and File/Import the .reg file
Sean Connolly 1 Reputation point

2021-07-01T22:17:10.187+00:00

This issue has been plaquing me for days since i clients cert expired. This thread was life saver. Thank you!
Tom Cahill 6 Reputation points

2022-05-11T14:35:07.443+00:00

I really hope Microsoft has not depricated this service without any kind of heads up to partners and users.

Thankfully I only have 3 clients still using this and so far none of them are affected.

Accepted answer

Tobias Widmayer 146 Reputation points

2021-03-23T06:53:22.903+00:00

Maybe the solution from this thread works for you too:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/319165/remotewebaccesscom-down-again.html?page=2&pageSize=10&sort=oldest

There are some powershell comands to run, explained here: https://sbsland.me/category/computers-and-internet/troubleshooting/
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5 people found this answer helpful.
Justin Vestrand 16 Reputation points

2021-03-22T23:09:35.463+00:00

I am having the same issue with a server 2016 essentials. Most of my clients aren't having known issues because their IP hasn't changed yet if on DHCP. I've fully patched my system.

Andrew Macaulay 141 Reputation points

2021-03-23T07:58:57.62+00:00

Yes, this also worked for me also! Need MS to be made aware of the bug AND the fix so that they can include it ASAP. Must admit that I made a .REG file using the info instead of the PowerShell commands (just a preference, but I find them more readable for me to check before applying) but after applying them and rebooting, repair worked finally.

Now just to get Microsoft to acknowledge the issue, understand the fix and get a patch out ASAP!

Andrew Macaulay 141 Reputation points

2021-03-23T08:00:10.743+00:00

For anyone interested, this is the .REG file that I used, based on the information from https://sbsland.me/category/computers-and-internet/troubleshooting/

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NETFramework\v2.0.50727] "SystemDefaultTlsVersions"=dword:00000001 "SchUseStrongCrypto"=dword:00000001 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NETFramework\v4.0.30319] "SystemDefaultTlsVersions"=dword:00000001 "SchUseStrongCrypto"=dword:00000001 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\.NETFramework\v2.0.50727] "SystemDefaultTlsVersions"=dword:00000001 "SchUseStrongCrypto"=dword:00000001 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\.NETFramework\v4.0.30319] "SystemDefaultTlsVersions"=dword:00000001 "SchUseStrongCrypto"=dword:00000001

Chris C 1 Reputation point

2021-03-24T07:17:48.067+00:00

Thank you, this worked for me. SBS 2016. I prefer the reg file option as well.

mark page 1 Reputation point

2021-03-24T17:18:50.087+00:00

Andrew,, Thank you for creating the .reg and solving a problem that microsoft could have easily issued a hot fix for all of us none it professionals that have purchased ms products for our small home office environments to
compete in a digital workspace.

the fix worked great. sb2016 standard

Curtis Corriere 11 Reputation points

2021-03-25T23:17:41.833+00:00

Hi Andrew, how do I download this REG file? I assume I can just copy and paste the entire text above into a text file and rename it to .reg? I have two 2016 server essentials getting this error since 3/15 and one has lost remote access today.

Thank you so much for posting this fix.

Andrew Macaulay 141 Reputation points

2021-03-25T23:33:21.65+00:00

Just copy and paste the text into Notepad and save the file as yourfile.reg
You can then either import the .reg file into RegEdit or just double click on the .reg file from Explorer to import it
It will prompt for a UAC elevation and then check you want to do it, after which it should report success.

Oliver Heggelbacher 11 Reputation points

2021-03-26T08:00:52.597+00:00

SBS 2012 (non-R2).: fix with .reg file works exactly as posted by @AndrewMacaulay-4648

Curtis Corriere 11 Reputation points

2021-03-26T13:46:12.23+00:00

Great thank you, I will try it out on the Server Essentials 2016. I'm always nervous about registry edits, I did one a few years ago to solve a problem and it didn't work. I ran all available updates over night so this will be the next step.
Thanks!

Curtis Corriere 11 Reputation points

2021-03-26T17:11:57.967+00:00

The fix didn't work for me unfortunately, but I did find this in the server manager under DNS. It's listing an incorrect IP address along with the correct one. Any idea how I would remove the incorrect one? .

ViRGEdx 1 Reputation point

2021-03-27T10:09:46.62+00:00

That did the trick on my WS2016E box as well. Thank you for the fix.

Though I have to say, this is one of the dumber bugs I've ever come across with Windows Server. TLS 1.2 was ratified 8 years before WS2016 came out. That we're having to manually enable it with some esoteric registry commands just to (re)connect to one of Microsoft's own services makes my brain hurt.

Chris C 1 Reputation point

2021-03-30T17:03:26.293+00:00

Hi Curtis, Try running the "Repair" button after the .reg fix and a reboot of your server. The Repair should update the DNS servers with your modem/router's public facing IP. Make sure you have a static public IP for better reliability.

Eric State 11 Reputation points

2021-04-05T02:37:56.453+00:00

Andrew, this fix worked perfectly! Thank you for taking the time to post about this issue that I have been working for weeks to try fix and to find a solution for.

Badger 1 Reputation point

2021-04-18T12:00:35.807+00:00

This worked for me on Windows Home Server 2011 which I think is SBS 2008 R2:

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/3bf5ecee-e091-49b9-99dc-cf36438b5731/unable-to-install-tls-11-and-12-on-windows-server-2008-sp2?forum=winservergen

The post from gbaker1138

Chris53153 6 Reputation points

2021-06-08T17:50:34.393+00:00

Brilliant, thank you. The .reg worked on our Server 2016 essentials box like a charm. I'd been getting the ddns error for a few weeks then finally it started alarming that the certificate was expiring. Thanks to all on this thread for doing Microsofts job for them.

Tom Cahill 6 Reputation points

2021-06-18T20:51:04.907+00:00

The registry entries below fixed the problem for me on a Server 2012 R2 Essentials install that lost connectivity because of the certificate expiring.

While I was searching for a fix like this I had opened up a ticket with Microsoft because I also had 2 2016 Essentials installs complaining they were unable to update the dynamic dns entry and that their certificates are about to expire.

Microsoft is aware of the issue and has 8 .reg files they sent me to fix the problem in case the .reg file that @AndrewMacaulay-4648 shared below doesn't work on a system. I've shared the zip they sent me below:

tlssettings

Josias Martins Jr 1 Reputation point

2021-09-05T01:26:37.04+00:00

This solution worked fine for my 2012 Essentials server. Thanks a lot for forwarding it.

xrdz 1 Reputation point

2021-09-30T01:52:31.037+00:00

Thankyou. This fixed the MS account connectivity issue for me on Server 2016 Essentials (initiated by an expired remotewebaccess.com certificate).

Even after the above was fixed, there were still DNS lookup failures reported in Dashboard.log which were fixed by:

Removing the default DNS forwarder (this was the IP address for an old gateway router)

Temporarily unblocking IPv6 routing connections initiated from the router's WAN.

For those wanting to check Dashboard.log for DNS lookup failures, an example string follows. Note the typo: "conection" [sic]

CoreNet: Internet Conection test using DNS attempt to reach 2001:dc3:2f::f failed.

Historically the Anywhere Access wizard has required temporarily forwarding port 80 to the RDG during setup. This is the first time I've had to unblock IPv6 on the firewall during setup so perhaps it will be of use to others who've gone down the same rabbit hole.

Gavin Simons 1 Reputation point

2021-11-04T13:31:19.917+00:00

This fix absolutely worked for me, you are a life saver. I tried for days to figure this out and losing my mind. thank you for all that you do.
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24 additional answers

Tobias Widmayer 146 Reputation points

2021-03-17T12:14:42.75+00:00

I have the same problem, the repair function reports that the domainservice ist not reachable since at least for two days.
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1 person found this answer helpful.
clj03 6 Reputation points

2021-03-22T04:42:15.48+00:00

I have the same problem Essentials 2016 same time frame
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Andrew Macaulay 141 Reputation points

2021-03-18T08:21:08.47+00:00

Yes still not fixed :-(

Minor issue for me as my broadband has fixed IP addresses, but annoying nag through the server status emails...

I must admit that this had me start wondering whether they might be thinking of deprecating this service given that the Essentials Experience stopped further development with 2016 (with effective final "end of life" next year) --- so it has made me consider whether I should be moving to using my own domain (which I have) for this capability, even though this means more work and managing certificate updates rather than the system doing it for me.

It would be nice if we could not only get a response from Microsoft on the problem (and fix) and maybe even have a simple service status dashboard for these services, but also get a clear statement on how long this service will remain available and supported.
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1 person found this answer helpful.

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Bill Hamilton 6 Reputation points

2021-03-21T17:37:44.817+00:00

It appears that this only effects 2016 servers not 2012 or 2012 R2. I support twelve 2016 Essentials servers and three 2016 Standard servers running the Essentials role and every one of them is having this problem. None of my 2012 or 20212 R2 servers are though. The warning has appeared in the Health reports of these servers every day starting on 3/15/21.
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1 person found this answer helpful.
Andrew Macaulay 141 Reputation points

2021-03-21T17:38:31.277+00:00

Interesting - maybe its a bug introduced in a recent patch for Server 2016?

mark page 1 Reputation point

2021-03-22T14:46:40.523+00:00

I am not an IT professional but why would 2012 essentials function if the DNS servers are down. I purchased 2016 essentials for the ease of setting up remote web access and have built my home network around it. Doesnt 2012 use the same remote hosting servers? I know 2016 is nearing MS end of life support and they did the same thing with windows homeserver which i ran for years at homeserver.com.

I do have an evaluation copy of 2012 r2 and would consider a virtual box if that still works but not going to purchase a copy if ms is not going to support DDNS any longer.
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Hans-Jörg Paul 111 Reputation points

2021-03-22T12:49:02.763+00:00

i thing, it starts with the last patch from 15.03....
how ever, its an MS Problem an wie can do nothing in our home office!!!
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1 person found this answer helpful.

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