Microsoft needs to fix this already.
For those who don't understand the issue: PC Restore will fail if your internet router / NAT box is set up to provide DNS servers over DHCP. For example, I named my home server "HOME". When I boot the client restore CD, it finds my server, then tries to talk to "HOME.rr.comcast.net", which of course is some random machine somewhere on the internet.
Compounding the problem is that the boot environment is set up to automatically append DNS suffixes, which it will cheerfully download from your DHCP server. There's no way to reconfigure this in the limited environment of the restore CD (shift-F10 doesn't work).
You can get the restore to work one of several ways:
1. Plus the computer you're trying to restore directly into the Home Server. That means taking a network cable and directly connecting the two computers, with no router or switch in between. This will force both machines to use Windows Private addresses. Obviously all other users will be disconnected from the server until you plug it back into the network.. real professional.
2. Get your own DNS server running, possibly on the WHS machine.
Attention stubborn WHS team at Microsoft: Notice how neither of these options are something a computer novice would even think of doing??
Fix this already. You shouldn't be trying to resolve a server name in DNS. Most people don't have any control over their DNS; they use DNS servers belonging to their ISP. Once you find a server using broadcast IP packets, just use the IP address you've already discovered.
