PowerShell remoting doesn't work if computer name contains dot

Question

I have one system where I cannot connect to remote computer (or to itself remotely) using PowerShell when computer name contains dot.

For example, this works:

  Enter-PSSession HostA -Credential user1

But this doesn't:

  Enter-PSSession 192.168.0.1 -Credential user1 

This doesn't work either:

  Enter-PSSession HostA.DomainA -Credential user1 

Same problem happens when I try to connect PS-Session over network to the same computer using its IP address or full domain name (or just by adding dot to its short name). The only exception is "127.0.0.1" - in that case remote PS connection works. I am setting TrustedHosts to '*' - that doesn't make any difference.

I have another system which doesn't exhibit this behavior - i.e. where I can use IP addresses and fully-qualified host names interchangeably. I don't see any obvious difference in configurations between these systems.

I'm getting the following error:

Enter-PSSession : Connecting to remote server 192.168.0.1 failed with
the following error message : The client cannot  connect to the
destination specified in the request. Verify that the service on the
destination is running and is  accepting requests. Consult the logs
and documentation for the WS-Management service running on the
destination, most  commonly IIS or WinRM. If the destination is the
WinRM service, run the following command on the destination to analyze
and configure the WinRM service: "winrm quickconfig". For more
information, see the about_Remote_Troubleshooting Help  topic. At
line:1 char:1
Enter-PSSession 192.168.0.1 -Credential user1
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     + CategoryInfo          : InvalidArgument: (192.168.0.1:String) [Enter-PSSession], PSRemotingTransportException
     + FullyQualifiedErrorId : CreateRemoteRunspaceFailed

Does anyone have an idea of what's causing this ?

Solution

PSRemoting to an IP address always gives me an error, could be something to do with computer names and certificates, I haven't bothered to look into it. FQDN however works for me. Remember that the FQDN can be separate than your domain's name, which won't work.

Microsoft says the period is a valid character in a NETBIOS name, however changing the computer name on my Windows 7 computer to add a dot gives me an error. Upon further investigation, MS has this to say about that special character:

A period character separates the name into a NetBIOS scope identifier and the computer name. The NetBIOS scope identifier is an optional string of characters that identify logical NetBIOS networks that run on the same physical TCP/IP network. For NetBIOS to work between computers, the computers must have the same NetBIOS scope identifier and unique computer names.

This is slightly different than using a period when specifying an fqdn. In fact, I'll go so far as to say that it may be interpreting the dot as specifying an fqdn and that's what is causing the problem.

Comments

[Adarsh Anurag]

Try running winrm enum /winrm/config/listener on a good machine and the problem machine and see if you notice any differences. Also, check the 'Windows Remote Management' Operational log in the Event Viewer (under Applications and Services Logs) on both the client and server and see if that gives any additional details.