Hello,
Last week, I updated a Windows 7 Pro client computer with a clean install to Windows 8.1 Pro on a Windows Server 2012 Essentials R2 network w six Windows computers(server was also clean installed around three months ago & does not have any errors/known-issues). Initially I could not get the new OS client pc to connect from a workgroup to the domain using the Windows Server Essentials Connector, w an error message saying that a trust relationship between client& server could not be established & to check the time/date settings(which are correct). The new pc was able to connect to the domain using the Advanced System Properties Network ID change from the client computer & afterwards the Server Connector would work w no errors, other than the Launchpad from client pc says cannot connect to server when hovering the mouse over it in system tray. The computer is now listed in the Server's Dashboard, but it is offline. Shared folders are now accessible on the client, but it does not backup & cannot login remotely from outside the office. Steps I've taken to resolve this are below:
- Uninstalled Server Connector & re-installed various times on client.
- Ran sfc /scannow on client & server w no errors.
- Clean installed Windows 8.1 on client computer several times.
- Since the same client computer was previously joined to the domain w Windows 7 Pro without problems, I changed the computer name of the new Windows 8.1 OS install slightly, in case there was some unknown conflicts w the previously used computer name. Currently client is same computer name as is was when working properly w Windows 7 Pro.
- No known IP conflicts w servers DNS service for client pc.
- No known IP conflicts w servers DHCP scope for client pc.
- Rebooted entire network including router, modem, server, switch.
- Changed dynamic IPv4 address to a static different IP address on network & did above steps again. Currently problem client pc is the same dynamic IPv4 address as it was when computer had Windows 7 Pro working properly.
- Released & renewed the MS personalized domain name for remote web access, which is working fine for other five computers.
The next thing I'm going to look at(although am hesitant to do so because of error messages I couldn't get rid of on a similar, but different network set-up from a few years ago), is to try to renew the servers CA certificates, although the service seems to be working just fine. The problem client has an issued certificate & the only revoked certificates are from when the server connect would fail w the trust error messages.
I've been trying to resolve this for the past week or so & am out of ideas. I was planning to update three other computers to Windows 8.1 Pro in the next few months & am expecting the same issue as this in the future. I am not a networking expert, but I do have enough networking knowledge to set-up/maintain networks such as this without any issues, for the most part. My apologies if I left anything important out, but any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Paul