Server Essentials dynamic DNS failing again (remotewebaccess.com)

Topic

New Reply

[mcbsys]

Heads up if you still run Server Essentials with remotewebaccess.com for dynamic DNS:  DDNS updates have started failing again.

Primary report and discussion:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/318584/are-the-problems-with-remotewebaccesscom-domain-an.html?childToView=836815#answer-836815

I tried to do some Wireshark tracing this morning but didn’t get too far. It may be related to a missing domain in the SSL certificate presented by onedscolprdneu05.northeurope.cloudapp.azure.com. I blogged in more detail here:

https://www.mcbsys.com/blog/2022/05/debugging-remotewebaccess-com/

@sb Susan do you still have contacts at Microsoft that maintain Essentials? Or is it fully abandoned?

 

• This topic was modified 2 years, 11 months ago by mcbsys.

Reply | Quote

Replies

Let me try.  I can’t guarantee anything these days.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

1 user thanked author for this post.

mcbsys

Reply | Quote

For reference, an earlier post about remotewebaccess problems:

https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/essentials-servers-fix-up-to-get-remotewebaccess-renewed/

This time, upgrading TLS doesn’t help. It would be annoying if Microsoft announced the end of the remotewebaccess service when Essentials still has five years of support left. What’s more concerning is that they keep breaking it without announcing anything–like they just forget that it’s there. “Oops, were you using that?”

Reply | Quote

”

 SamriddhiChaturvedi-1672 · 21 hours ago

Hi
We have made some changes and changes and expect the issue to go away.
Can you please verify at your end/setups ?”

Can you check?

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

Reply | Quote

Thanks! I hadn’t see that thread yet–apparently it’s the main one now:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/836775/

Initial feedback is that the fix didn’t work but maybe now that Microsoft is aware, they will keep working on it.

Meanwhile, I’ve already moved one site to a custom remote.mydomain.com. The Office Maven has a pretty comprehensive article on that here.

Reply | Quote

Multiple users in the linked thread are reporting in the last 18 hours that it is working again.

Pretty sure that we have Susan @sb to thank for getting Microsoft’s attention on this! Thank you, Susan!

Reply | Quote

The Microsoft fix seems to be working now.  I was able to repair RWW on a Windows Server Essentials 2012R2 VM tonight that had been failing to update the new external IP with Azure DNS since early May.

1 user thanked author for this post.

mcbsys

Reply | Quote

Does anyone know what service actually runs the Dyndns Update for remotewebaccess? I was able to renew the certificate, but the IP address still isn’t updating and a desktop is showing some VERY old IP address that isn’t correct for my domain. Perhaps if I could FORCE an update from the WSE 2012 R2 server?

Reply | Quote

Hi everyone.

Looks like the free Microsoft dynamic dns service in Essentials 2012 and 2016 has stopped working after recent windows update KB5020690 and KB5020023.

Any fixes?

Kind regards

Reply | Quote

Have you guys installed the hotfix?

 

October 17, 2022—KB5020435 (OS Builds 19042.2132, 19043.2132, and 19044.2132) Out-of-band – Microsoft Support

Install that and see if it fixes the issue?

October 17, 2022—KB5020435 (OS Builds 19042.2132, 19043.2132, and 19044.2132) Out-of-band – support.microsoft.com Windows 10, version 20H2 and Windows Server, version 20H2 update history; October 28, 2022—KB5020953 (OS Builds 19042.2194, 19043.2194, and 19044.2194) Out-of-band support.microsoft.com

 

If this fixes it, that was slid into the PREVIEW update of 9/20

• New! Turns off Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.0 and 1.1 by default in Microsoft browsers and applications. For more information, see KB5017811.

So the side effect for the October security update was really a kinda security feature that was slid into the preview release

September 20, 2022—KB5017380 (OS Builds 19042.2075, 19043.2075, and 19044.2075) Preview – Microsoft Support

September 20, 2022—KB5017380 (OS Builds 19042.2075, 19043.2075, and 19044.2075) Preview – Microsoft Support – support.microsoft.com Windows 10, version 1909 and Windows Server, version 1909 update history; End of service statement; May 10, 2022—KB5013945 (OS Build 18363.2274) support.microsoft.com

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

Reply | Quote

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/october-18-2022-kb5020439-os-build-14393-5429-out-of-band-f9840376-4f36-45c3-8dd8-f366c4b884dd  for server 2016

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/kb5020449-out-of-band-update-for-windows-server-2012-october-17-2022-6910b46a-261c-499e-8e6c-45d7daa053d7 for 2012

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

Reply | Quote

They admitted in the forums that there is a virtual machine failing in their cloud.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

Reply | Quote

Seems to be down again

 

 

Reply | Quote

Remotewebaccess.com down? Current problems and status. (downforeveryoneorjustme.com)

 

If I were in your shoes I would not rely on anyone from Microsoft remembering to keep this alive.

I’ll see if I can get someone to fix it.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

Reply | Quote

@Jesse, please be more specific:  are you unable to update the IP address after it has changed? Or is the yourdomain.remotewebaccess.com not resolving an IP address?

@sb, I don’t think that site tells us anything:  [www.]remotewebaccess.com is not supposed to work.

I have three sites that are still accessible via customerdomain.remotewebaccess.com, so the DNS seems to be resolving fine. The IP addresses of these customers pretty much never change, so I don’t know if the dynamic update part is working.

Reply | Quote

Someone here says they get the “same error” after installing September updates. Since resolving DNS would not depend on whether an update is installed, I guess that they are talking about errors (re)configuring a domain via the dashboard. I haven’t tried that; in fact, I haven’t installed September updates yet at customer sites.

Update:  and now I see a comment (in German) here that the problem is an IIS page appearing instead of the RWA login page. I’ve had that problem since the beginning with Essentials 2016. You can set up a redirect to the /remote page–see Server 2016 Anywhere Access Shows IIS instead of Login Page.

Update 2:  Glancing through my blog post on this issue, I commented on 11/14/2022 that there was an issue with https://dyndns.domains.live.com/service/livedyndns.asmx. When I visit that domain today, it shows that its certificate expired 9/16/2023. I suspect that is related, perhaps the cause. A bit ironic that the certificate for the site that issues certificates has expired!

Reply | Quote

mcbsys wrote:

When I visit that domain today, it shows that its certificate expired 9/16/2023.

As of 9/19/2023 10:30am PST, the certificate for https://dyndns.domains.live.com/service/livedyndns.asmx now shows as valid through 6/27/2024. In fact, that address returns a list of supported operations (screen shot).

Does that fix the Essentials issue?

Reply | Quote

Morning Mark!

Working now thank you.

Reply | Quote

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/836775/remotewebaccess-com-anywhere-access-broken-on-serv?page=13#answers

 

Broken again

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

Reply | Quote

Susan Bradley wrote:

Broken again

Susan, I responded in the Microsoft forum but the way that forum sorts and hides replies after the original is answered… I’m not sure either one of our posts will be seen.

Reply | Quote

Microsoft’s Samriddhi Chaturvedi has replied in the Microsoft thread. His advice is to find alternatives to Essentials RWA.

Reply | Quote