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I have a Windows 2000 server with a Windows 7 client that occasionally gets "error 53" when accessing the server by name (net view \\server). It still works by IP address (net view \\

The server's primary IP address (as shown in "routing and remote access" as "Gigabit Ethernet" is There is also a secondary IP address shown as "Internal" which is

The server also supports VPN. When a VPN user connects, it gets an address in the range of to .59.

Normally (when there is no error), when the local LAN client runs "ping server", it resolves to When the Error 53 problem happens, "ping server" resolves to

This problem seems to be related to when a user connects or has recently connected to the server VPN.

Is there some connection between the VPN services on the server and the DNS services on the server that could cause a local LAN client to become confused about which IP address to use for the server? Or is there a misconfiguration in the VPN or DNS?

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I'm still having this problem. Sometimes I can get error 53 when I use "net view \\server" but it still works by IP address (net view \\, even if there has been no VPN connected. "Ping server" resolves to The only solution I have found is rebooting the Win7 machine. So it may not be related to the VPN after all. –  tim11g Jun 2 '12 at 22:50

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