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Just what you want when stuck working from home: Microsoft domain mixup downs Remote Web Access

'Supported' Windows Server customers cut off from their subdomains

Updated Microsoft's Windows Server Essentials' Remote Web Access service, which lets customers set up web access to their on-premises server through a .remotewebaccess.com subdomain, became inaccessible on Thursday after an unannounced DNS change.

A Register readers told us he'd had client's services go down with the issue and aggrieved customers took to Microsoft support forums and social media to vent their frustration.

"It appears that Microsoft is having a worldwide outage for their remote access services that use remotewebaccess.com," wrote Sean Jennings, sales manager at Canadian IT support firm C.I.M Solutions, via Twitter. "This is preventing users from access their VPN and servers remotely. It is a DNS server issue and Microsoft has not responded with a timeline for the fix."

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Reddit sleuths report that the DNS name servers for the remoteaccess.com domain, which used to point to azuredns-cloud.net, were changed to point to Com Laude (NOM-IQ Ltd) name servers in the US, UK, and Switzerland.

The problem appears to be that the Com Laude name servers don't properly direct network requests to any of the subdomains used by Windows Server customers.

The registration record shows that the domain was updated on Thursday.

Remote Web Access is a feature in Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials, which is scheduled for support until 2023.

Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment. We've heard that Microsoft has repaired its records, but the fix may take some time to propagate to the appropriate servers. ®

Updated to add

In a not-uncommon display of brevity Microsoft gave The Reg the following statement: "This issue is now resolved.”

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