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Why does remote desktop not work for me by computer name, and only by IP?

Why does remote desktop not work for me by computer name, and only by IP?

I have a computer at work that I can only connect to remotely when using the computer's IP address and not when using the computer's name.

Asked by: Guest | Views: 552
Total answers/comments: 2
Guest [Entry]

"I hope you are connecting from a machine in the same network and both are Windows.
From the machine where you are remoting to JoshPC, What does ping -a <IPofJoshPC> give?
Does it give a different computer name? If so then your DNS server is not updated with resource records of JoshPC. From JoshPC, try ipconfig /registerdns. It will take 15 mins or so to register that computers resource records with DNS.

Edit1: Saw you update. Interesting! After some waiting, if it still does not work, i suggest trying to access machine with FQDN if you have not tried it yet. I did not encounter this error inside office, but when i used VPN from home, i usually get this errors. Just giving computer name will not connect, but giving the Full-Qualified name will connect.

Edit2: If the above fails, try using nslookup for JoshPC and compare the IPs you get. If these are different, then your DNS is definitely not updated. Try contacting administrator or flushing and registering with DNS."
Guest [Entry]

It seems that the DNS Server (the one holding the IP -> Name resolution) has cached wrong IP -> name pair. Ask your System Administrator to remove the entry & then try remoting.