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    Recently did a complete re-install of my OS on my laptop just cuz it was that time. Now everytime i try to reinstall the connector software, i get this after the part where you put in your password and everything. 

    "Configuring Computer Backup" (with a big red x next to it)
    "Ensure that your Home Server is powered on and connected to the network.
    To Try again, Click Back. If the problem persists, contact Product Support.

    If you purchased your product from ... blah .. blah ..blah"

    But right above that it says "Joining Windows Home Server" with a nice green check by it.

    Connector troubleshooter from the toolkit gives me this wealth of information...

    "Cannot connect to server backup"
    "Cannot connect to server transport"
    "IP Address mismatch between discovery and name resolution"
    "The version of the Connector software does not match the version of Windows Home Server"
    "Cannot connect to the server internal Web site (password hint page)"
    "Cannot connect to the server secure internal Web site"
    "Cannot connect to the server internal Web site (ASPX page)"
    "Cannot connect to the server internal Web services"
    "Cannot connect to the server internal secure Web services"
    "Cannot connect to the server internal Web site (simple page)"
    "Cannot ping server by name"


    Despite all of this, my network shares work perfect. My website works perfect. I can Remote Desktop in perfectly. Everything works except I cant instal the connector software, which means no PC backups for me. Ive tried installing multiple times, ive tried disconnecting everything and trying again, ive restarted the server, ive installed from the http://server:(some odd port number here). All to no avail.


    So any help would be greatly appreciated. And all of this brings me to my next question. Does anyone have any possible alternatives to WHS? I have been using it now for about 2 months and the concept of it is awesome, and when it works, its awesome. But i have wasted way to much time with errors in this software and do not feel it is worth my time anymore to fight with. Not to mention how much of my data is at stake here. I already almost lost all of it once because I had to do a complete re-install of the system (including the data partition) to remove some corrupted backup files that were stored because it wouldnt let me open the console to delete them. Maybe its just my luck, but WHS has not worked 100% the way it should since i started using it, and its been different problems each time. Sorry for my rant there at the end, but does anyone have any solutions to the above stated problem?

    Thanks
    Tuesday, December 16, 2008 6:31 AM

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    Hi,
    I had some issues (could install connector partially, join the PC to Windows Home Server, but was not able to configure backups) after installation of the WHS November patch (KB957825). Uninstalling and later reinstalling that Update from the server made me able to join that PC again. I wonder, if this is a similar issue on your system then.
    Do you get any messages in the clients event log?
    Best greetings from Germany
    Olaf
    • Marked as answer by s.morrow Wednesday, December 17, 2008 5:41 AM
    Wednesday, December 17, 2008 5:02 AM
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    Hi,
    did you reboot the WHS and the client in the time between various attempts?
    This did solve the "cannot configure backup" issue for me the last time it happened (after November upgrade).
    How clean was your reinstall?
    Did you at any time configure a hosts entry on that laptop pointing to home server with wrong IP address (maybe outdated now)?

    In some situations disconnecting the router from Internet, restarting it while disconnected and then trying the installation again solved such an issue as well.

    Please post the output of
    ipconfig /all
    from both the client and the server for further diagnostics.

    Best greetings from Germany
    Olaf
    Tuesday, December 16, 2008 7:13 AM
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    Yup, did all of that. Guess it would not hurt to try rebooting both machines one more time though. Ill try that later. Not sure what you mean by how clean was my reinstall, but i completely wiped off the drive on my client before i reinstalled if thats what you mean, so REAL clean. And im not real sure what you mean by your next question either, which means no I did not. My WHS has the same IP address now that it had when I first installed it two months ago.


    Ipconfig from my client (laptop)

    Windows IP Configuration

       Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : mylaptop
       Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . :
       Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
       IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
       WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
       DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : Omnispring

    Wireless LAN adapter Wireless Network Connection:

       Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
       Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
       Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Con
    nection
       Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-18-DE-31-37-24
       DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
       Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

    Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

       Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : Omnispring
       Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) PRO/1000 PL Network Connection
       Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-16-36-98-15-2B
       DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
       Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
       Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::5868:c2f7:f7e6:fe4a%8(Preferred)
       IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.100(Preferred)
       Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
       Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Tuesday, December 16, 2008 7:54:25 AM
       Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Wednesday, December 17, 2008 7:54:25 AM
       Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
       DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
       DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 208.180.42.68
                                           208.180.42.100
       NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

    Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 6:

       Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
       Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter
       Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
       DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
       Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
       Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
       NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled

    Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 13:

       Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
       Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
       Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 02-00-54-55-4E-01
       DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
       Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
       IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 2001:0:4137:9e50:1c6c:1d1b:3f57:fe9b(Pref
    erred)
       Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::1c6c:1d1b:3f57:fe9b%14(Preferred)
       Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : ::
       NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled




    ipconfig from server

    Windows IP Configuration

       Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : server
       Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . :
       Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
       IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
       WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
       DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : Omnispring

    Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

       Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : Omnispring
       Description . . . . . . . . . . . : NETGEAR FA311/312 PCI Adapter
       Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-40-F4-53-47-AB
       DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
       Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
       IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.103
       Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
       Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
       DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
       DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 208.180.42.68
                                           208.180.42.100
       Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Tuesday, December 16, 2008 5:52:10 AM
       Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Wednesday, December 17, 2008 5:52:10 AM

    Ethernet adapter Hamachi:

       Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
       Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Hamachi Network Interface
       Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 7A-79-00-00-00-01
       DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
       Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : No
       IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 5.129.48.171
       Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.0.0.0
       Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
       DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 5.0.0.1
       Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Monday, December 15, 2008 8:01:32 PM
       Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Tuesday, December 15, 2009 8:01:32 PM
    Tuesday, December 16, 2008 2:05 PM
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    Restarted both machines once again and still same problem. My reinstall was completely clean (wiped the drive clean) and my WHS IP has been the same since i installed it

    Next suggestion?
    Tuesday, December 16, 2008 2:33 PM
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    Well, in your IP configuration I see some settings, which may cause name resolution problems:
    DNS suffix Omnispring - in context with pointing DNS to an external address instead of the router the chances are high, that DNS name resolution tries to get the IP of your server from your ISPs DNS server. If there is already a machine named "server" registered and resolved in the context of your DNS suffix, a mismatch is possible.
    That's why I asked to disconnect the router from the Internet for testing.

    Recommendations what to try:
    (Take a note of changes, so that you can revert easily.)
    Remove the Omnispring stuff from your routers DHCP configuration in it's web interface (if possible) and change the IP address assigned for DHCP clients for the DNS server to the address of your default gateway 192.168.1.1.
    A normal router will route DNS requests, which he cannot resolve, to the DNS server of the ISP on it's own.
    On the server you could enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP in Network Properties/TC-IP/Advanced/WINS tab.
    After performing all these changes (especially in router), type
    ipconfig /release
    and
    ipconfig /renew
    on client and server and reboot both machines. (The later may change the IP address of the server, so if you have already established Remote Access, you may have to redo this to forward the ports by the router to the new IP address.)
    Wait some time for the NetBIOS names to propagate in the network and try to install the connector software again (or run discovery.exe on the client, if the connector is still installed.)

    Best greetings from Germany
    Olaf
    Tuesday, December 16, 2008 3:10 PM
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    Wow... And that is exactly why I am unsatisfied with this product... I will try and wade through all of that when I get home this afternoon, but the fact that I have to go through all of that just to troubleshoot why the connector wont install reinforces my point about this piece of software not meeting its "everyday PC user" target audience. Luckily I am Junior Computer Engineering major and work in the field daily (@HP if your curious) so I can actually understand the majority of whats going on. Thanks for all your help Olaf, i greatly appreciate you taking the time to help me out with this. I will post back with the results this evening.
    Tuesday, December 16, 2008 7:04 PM
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    Ive still got no luck installing the connector software. Same error. This is my only observation. My client is still set up in the WHS console for backups, but grayed out (as if the machine was off). This is because before I did a reinstall of my client OS, i did a backup to my WHS just incase i need some of the files on the old OS. Now after client OS reinstall, I used the same computer name. Is it possible that WHS sees there is already a computer name listed with the same as my client when installing the connector software, which it will not allow? I already tried changing my clients name by adding a 2 to the end of it, but that did work either. If i could get the data off of the backup on the WHS, i would remove that backup entry, but I cannot get the data off of it without first having connector installed. Or can I? 

    I dont even know if that would create a problem at all, but its the only thing I can think of.
    Tuesday, December 16, 2008 9:32 PM
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    Scratch all of that I said above. The previous client and current client are not named the same i just found out. So thats no the problem. I just reset my router and the server and reconfigured it all, and i am right back where i started. 

    Next suggestion?
    Tuesday, December 16, 2008 10:31 PM
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    Ok, found that the problem is server side. I tried installing the connector software on my roomates laptop (which has never used my server before at all) and I get the same error. Now... Any know any suggestions as to how I should track down why my WHS is failing to configure backups?
    Wednesday, December 17, 2008 1:30 AM
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    Are you running PP1?  Are you using the connector software stored on the server?
    Wednesday, December 17, 2008 1:37 AM
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    Yes  to both questions.

    Installing directly off of the share, as well as through the website http://server:(whatever port number that i dont feel like looking up right now)

    all give the same error.
    Wednesday, December 17, 2008 2:27 AM
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    Hi,
    I had some issues (could install connector partially, join the PC to Windows Home Server, but was not able to configure backups) after installation of the WHS November patch (KB957825). Uninstalling and later reinstalling that Update from the server made me able to join that PC again. I wonder, if this is a similar issue on your system then.
    Do you get any messages in the clients event log?
    Best greetings from Germany
    Olaf
    • Marked as answer by s.morrow Wednesday, December 17, 2008 5:41 AM
    Wednesday, December 17, 2008 5:02 AM
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    No messages at all in the client or server event logs. And how do i go about uninstalling that november update to see if I can install the connector then?
    Wednesday, December 17, 2008 5:05 AM
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    YAY!!! Finally. I should have know that an update from Microsoft would only makes things worse. Uninstalled November update and all is well now. I think this is the first time WHS has actually been working 100% the way it is supposed to since the first day i installed it. My website works, my backup works, the console works. Its like a miracle. Thanks for your help Olaf. Im sure I will talk back within a week when my next problem starts up haha. 
    Wednesday, December 17, 2008 5:44 AM