I noticed a strange problem on windows vista and windows server 2008 computers in my domain. When the option to register a connections address in DNS is selected there is randomly a popup that a generic host process crashed. Also when looking at my network and sharing center, it tells me that I have limited connectivity, although I can conntect to the internet and ping other hosts on my network. When I click on the red x and it asks if I want windows to resolve the problem for me, it comes back saying that no problem was found. I can solve this problem by disabling the registering of a connections address in DNS and reboot and these problems go away completely and my network and sharing center report that I am connected to the internet with no problems. Does anyone know what would cause this kind of behaviour? Is there something I need to change with my DNS server configuration. All my windows XP and Windows 2003 servers work without any problems with the DNS registration option checked. Also, even if windows were having some sort of issue registering its connection, it seems like quite a bug in windows that it causes processes to crash. Any help is much appreciated. Thanks :-)

I'm having the same exact issue. My computer network all of the sudden defaults to an 'unidentified network' twice a day and the only way it can resolved is to restart. I have another vista 32 bit machine on the same network and this has never been a problem. I purchased a usb wireless network card to see if was maybe an issue with the integrated network port on the motherboard, but the problem still happens. This has been going on for a couple of months now. I'm not sure if it was a specific windows update or not, but my system has been working fine for almost a year before this started happening. Any help would be greatly appreciated. My work productivity has dropped off a bit having to shut down all of my work apps to reboot is a major inconvenience. Thank you

Hi, May I know if all the Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 encountered this issue? Based on my research, Id like suggest the following: 1. Please boot the computer to Safe Mode with networking and see if the issue reoccurs. 2. Please ensure that the network devices (router, switch, etc.) are compactable with Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. 3. Update device driver for the NIC. And please also give me the detail information about the NIC, such as its brand and model. 4. Check the issue by manually assigning IP address, subnet mask, default gateway and the DNS settings according to your network settings. 5. Check the network related services: Remote Procedure Call (RPC) (Automatic Started) DCOM Server Process Launcher (Automatic Started) DNS Client (Automatic Started) If the services are not in the status as expected above, please manually check the services and adjust them to see if it helps. If this still exists, it can be caused by the factor that the Vista cannot obtain an proper IP address and please refer to the following KB: Windows Vista cannot obtain an IP address from certain routers or from certain non-Microsoft DHCP servers http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928233 Meanwhile, please also help collect more information: 1.Pleaserun CMD and then ipconfig /all to export all the network settings and post the information to this thread. 2. Please check the event log. Is there any related error message? Hope this helps. Thanks. Nicholas Li - MSFT

I have been trying to figure out the problem on my own here, and this is what I have learned so far. On Windows 2008, in the DNS tab of the TCP/IP properties if either the register this connections address in DNS check box, or that box and the use this connections DNS suffix in DNS registration box is checked the DNS client crashes and takes SVCHOST with it. On Vista it seems to only happen when you have both boxes checked. What I suspect is happening is that the DNS client is trying to register itself in DNS and is unable to do so and this crashes the DNS client. We are running things in a mixed environment here. Our primary DNS servers are bind DNS, and for our active directory we use Microsoft's active directory integrated dynamic DNS. But because we also use the bind DNS we have the reverse DNS setup as secondary zones, which can not be updated dynamically. Our DNS zone for active directory is ad.xxx-xxx.com where the DNS for everything else that xxx-xxx.com, I deleted one of the secondary zones and made a new one in its place that is active directory integrated, once I did this the issue seemed to go away at least on the vista system, I have not tested that with the windows server 2008 system yet. I would prefer not to change the DNS setup and I suspect this is a bug in the DNS client on Windows Vista. I am planning on testing more tomorrow with the windows 2008 server and seeing if I get the same results. The way I see it, if the DNS client has a problem registering with the DNS server it should not crash, it should just give some kind of error. Let me know what you think, here are some answers to your questions, and the extra information you requested. 1. The same problem happens in safe mode with networking. 2. I believe all networking equipment is vista compatible. 3. I updated the NIC driver, and also this was a clean install on the laptop I have this problem on. I am having this issue when connected to both the wireless, and wired NICs, and this issue also happens on a windows 2008 server and other vista desktops on our network. I also was able to get this to happen from home on the laptop via the wireless connection. So I don't believe its a driver/hardware issue. 4. I manually assigned IP addresses and was not able to fix the problem. 5. The DNS client is the culprit and it dies and seems to be the reason SVCHOST crashes. This is not an issue with not getting a DHCP address, DHCP is working fine. Event Logs I get this even in the application logs Log Name: Application Source: Application Error Date: 4/27/2009 3:53:28 PM Event ID: 1000 Task Category: (100) Level: Error Keywords: Classic User: N/A Computer: laptop01 Description: Faulting application svchost.exe_Dnscache, version 6.0.6001.18000, time stamp 0x47918b89, faulting module DNSAPI.dll, version 6.0.6001.18000, time stamp 0x4791a68e, exception code 0xc0000005, fault offset 0x0000b2e5, process id 0x7e8, application start time 0x01c9c78ab230bebb. Event Xml: <Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event"> <System> <Provider Name="Application Error" /> <EventID Qualifiers="0">1000</EventID> <Level>2</Level> <Task>100</Task> <Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords> <TimeCreated SystemTime="2009-04-27T22:53:28.000Z" /> <EventRecordID>4349</EventRecordID> <Channel>Application</Channel> <Computer>laptop01</Computer> <Security /> </System> <EventData> <Data>svchost.exe_Dnscache</Data> <Data>6.0.6001.18000</Data> <Data>47918b89</Data> <Data>DNSAPI.dll</Data> <Data>6.0.6001.18000</Data> <Data>4791a68e</Data> <Data>c0000005</Data> <Data>0000b2e5</Data> <Data>7e8</Data> <Data>01c9c78ab230bebb</Data> </EventData> </Event> Then in the system logs I get events notifying me that the following services terminated unexpectedly -DNSClient -Cryptographic service -KtmRm for Distributed Transaction Coordinator service -Network Location Awareness service -Telephony service -Terminal Services service I am guessing all these were child processes of SVCHOST Network info I took out the IP specifics Windows IP Configuration Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : laptop01 Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . : Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcast IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : xxx-xxx.com Wireless LAN adapter Wireless Network Connection: Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : xxx-xxx.com Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-1D-E0-50-BB-AA DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : xxx.xxx.xxx.197(Preferred) Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.254.0 Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Monday, April 27, 2009 10:08:49 AM Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Monday, April 27, 2009 4:08:50 PM Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : xxx.xxx.xxx.1 DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : xxx.xxx.xxx.254 DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : xxx.xxx.xxx.11 xxx.xxx.xxx.10 NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Hi, Thank you for updating. After checking the error message in Event Log, I suspect the DNS Client service failed to work. At this time, I would like to suggest the following: 1. Please check the DNS Client service: 1) Click Start, type services.msc in the Search Bar and press ENTER. 2)Navigate to DNS Client service. 3)If it is stopped, please start it; if it is started, please stop and restart it. Then, check if it works. You can also run the following in a elevated command prompt: net stop dnscache Then, net start dnscache Note: If any error message is received, please let us know the details. Please also check the services which you have mentioned: Cryptographic service KtmRm for Distributed Transaction Coordinator service Network Location Awareness service Telephony service Terminal Services service 2. Please ensure that all the updates have been applied on the computer. You can run Windows Update to have a check. 3. Please perform a Clean Boot to check the issue. 1) Click the Start Button type "msconfig" (without quotation marks) in the Search box, and then press Enter. Note: If prompted, please click Continue on the User Account Control (UAC) window. 2) Click the "Services" tab, check the "Hide All Microsoft Services" box and click "Disable All" (if it is not gray). 3) Click the "Startup" tab, click "Disable All" and click "OK". Then, restart the computer. When the "System Configuration Utility" window appears, please check the "Don't show this message or launch the System Configuration Utility when Windows starts" box and click OK. NOTE: we can go back to normal boot by running msconfig again and checking on Normal Startup in the General tab. In the Clean Boot Environment, the third party services and applications are disabled, please check if the issue reoccurs at this time. If the problem does not occur, it indicates that the problem is related to one application or service we have disabled. You may use the MSCONFIG tool again to re-enable the disabled item one by one to find out the culprit. 4. Adjust the network settings. 1)Go to Control Panel - Network Connections. 2)Right-click the connection that you want to configure, and then click Properties. 3)Click Internet Protocol version 4 (TCP/IPv4), click Properties, and then click Advanced. 4)Click DNS tab and clear the Register this connection's addresses in DNS check box. 5. Modify the related entries in registry. Note: Please perform a full system backup first. 1)Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK. 2)Locate and then click the following registry subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters 3)On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD value. 4)Type DisableDynamicUpdate, and then press ENTER two times. 5)In Edit DWORD Value, type 1 in the Value data box, and then click OK. 6)Quit Registry Editor. After performing the steps above, please check if the issue reoccurs. Hope this helps. Thanks.Nicholas Li - MSFT

I have the same exact issue on most of my windows 2008 Servers and several Vista machines. I have run through the steps outlined above and still can not find the cause of the problem, other than there being a problem with the DNSClient aka dnscache. Unfortunately in our active directory environment disabling dynamic dns updating is not an option. Is there a planned fix for this??

I have the same exact issue on most of my windows 2008 Servers and several Vista machines. I have run through the steps outlined above and still can not find the cause of the problem, other than there being a problem with the DNSClient aka dnscache. Unfortunately in our active directory environment disabling dynamic dns updating is not an option. Is there a planned fix for this?? I have the sames issue on 2 Windows Server 2008.In the next page web: http://www.experts-exchange.com/OS/Microsoft_Operating_Systems/Server/Windows_Server_2008/Q_24005683.html?sfQueryTermInfo=1+connectmention that Microsofthas aKB to fix it: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/956721but the LINK doesn't work.... someone has anallusion regarding it?Regards.JR

Try checking you reverse lookup zone. If you're reverse DNS zones are not setup, it will also cause this problem. I had this issue when I installed 2nd DC in a different subnet where I had not created a reverse lookup zone. Hope this helps.FA

The answer to the problem was that there was a problem with the DNSClient which was fixed in the latest service pack, as soon as the service pack was installed this problem was fixed.

Hello Nights62, Which latest service pack for 2008 you mean SP2 ? I'm puzzled by this..., because i already have SP2installed on the server and patch KB956721 is no longer available for download. :( Thanks for any help.