Category Archives: Small Business Server 2011

Microsoft, SBS 2011, Small Business Server 2011, Windows, Windows Server 2008 R2

You may find that the DHCP Server Service Crashes in Windows Server 2008 R2 and SBS 2011 – RTM or Service Pack 1

If your Windows Server 2008 R2/SBS 2011 system is running the DHCP Server service then you may find that it crashes randomly, this is due to a race condition in the service.  If you do not have the service recovery option set then the DHCP Server service will be unable to service client DHCP reqests until you manually restart the service.

Microsoft have posted a hotfix for this issue and explain the issue in more detail here http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2616864

KB 2616864 provides an updated version of “Dhcpssvc.dll” to prevent the race condition and potential crash.

Fax, Microsoft, SBS 2008, SBS 2011, Small Business Server 2008, Small Business Server 2011, Windows, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista

The Microsoft Fax Service may crash randomly on Windows Server 2008 – SP2, SBS 2008 – SP2 or Windows Server 2008 R2, SBS 2011

You may find that the Microsoft Windows fax service randomly crashes, this will be evident in the Windows Application Event Log where you will find Events with a Source of “Application Error”. These will reference “fxssvc.exe” and the exception code within the event will most likely be “0xc0000005”.

The error can occur because of a race condition in the fax service, this in turn can cause the access violation knocking the fax service over.
The issue can be resolved by installing the Microsoft Hotfix from KB 2302075 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2302075 this hotfix contains updated versions of “Fxssvc.exe” for Server 2008/Vista/SBS 2008 – SP2 and Server 2008 R2/Windows 7/SBS 2011

Fax, Microsoft, SBS 2008, SBS 2011, Small Business Server 2008, Small Business Server 2011, Windows, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista

The Microsoft Fax Service crashes when you receive a fax on Windows Server 2008 – SP2, SBS 2008 – SP2 or Windows Server 2008 R2 – SP1, SBS 2011 – SP1

You may find that the Microsoft Windows fax service randomly crashes when your server is receiving a fax, this will be evident in the Windows Application Event Log where you will find Event ID 32083 and 32089.  These Events will contain the following errors/warnings:

The Fax Service failed to execute a specific routing method. The service will retry to route the fax according to the retries configuration. If the retries fail, verify routing method configuration.

and/or

Unable to route fax FileName to the requested e-mail address. The following error occurred: 0x80040211 This error code indicates the cause of the error. Check the SMTP server configuration, and correct any anomalies.

The error is related to two classes not being unregistered each time the Inetcomm.dll module is unloaded, next time it is loaded to route a fax a function still tries to point to the old address and causes the Fax Service to Crash.

The issue can be resolved by installing the Microsoft Hotfix from KB 973640 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/973640 this hotfix contains updated versions of Inetcomm.dll and Inetres.dll for Server 2008/Vista/SBS 2008 and just a new version of Inetcomm.dll for Server 2008 R2/Windows 7/SBS 2011

FireBox, Microsoft, SBS 2008, SBS 2011, Small Business Server 2008, Small Business Server 2011, SSL VPN, Watchguard, Windows, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista, XTM

Watchguard – SSL VPN clients cannot resolve internal host names despite DNS servers being configured for the connection

You may find that when you configure your Watchguard XTM Firewall to accept SSL VPN connections that clients can connect to

the VPN and ping IP addresses of internal resources, however you cannot resolve internal hosts even via FQDN using DNS.  You

may also find that when you run NSLOOKUP on the SSL VPN connected client that the  result is your Internet Service Providers

DNS servers rather than the DNS servers assigned via the VPN connection.

 

To resolve the issue you can change your SSL VPN configuration from a “Routed VPN” to a “Bridge VPN”, the routed VPN uses a

virtual IP address pool (192.168.113.0/24) which does not match your internal IP range or the address range of the internal

DNS Servers.  When a Windows client connects to the “Routed VPN” it appears that due to the DNS server mismatch they are not

utilised by the client.

 

When you configure the VPN in “Bridge VPN” mode you can work around this issue, the Bridge VPN configuration allows you to

exclude some addresses from your Windows DHCP Server Pool and add the into them “Start” and “End” IP addresses on your

Watchguard SSL VPN Configuration Page. The Watchguard will now become responsible for assigning these internal IPs to VPN

clients as they connect rather than the Windows DHCP Server.

 

You should now find that when your SSL VPN clients connect that they are assigned an IP address and DNS server that are all

within the existing internal IP range of your network.  An NSLOOKUP should now return your internal DNS server address and

you should be able to ping hostnames and FQDNs that reside within your internal network.

 

Examples:

ping windowsserver

ping windowsserver.exampledomain.local

 

Please remember that the only down side with this configuration is that a “Bridge VPN” bridges to the “Trusted” interface,

this means that the client computer can access any internal resources that they have permissions for by default. A “Routed

VPN” allows you to offer traffic to Optional/secondary networks and gives you more control by letting you lock down access

using “Specify allowed resources”.