Question : event id 5509 is reported in the DNS log of event viewer...

Hello Guys and thanks as always for your time and expertise.  Here's the issue I wanted to run by you guys:  My boss was using Alteris 6.5 and he was trying to add new computers (workgroup computers in Alteris - not joined to the domain) and he couldn't find the computers.  In other words, he can't see these workgroup computers in alteris.  We checked the DNS server and event id 5509 was listed stating the following: "The DNS server encountered an invalid DNS update message from "IP". The packet was rejected."  I researched this event on eventid.net and microsoft indicated the problem could be because of special characters - that's not the problem here.  We're not using any special characters in the machine name.  Microsoft also indicated to go into properties of the DNS server and go to advanced and select accept all names - not sure if he did this.  I was wondering if anyone had any experience with this issue or what may be happening or something were missing.  As always guys, thanks for your time and expertise.

Answer : event id 5509 is reported in the DNS log of event viewer...

> The DNS server encountered an invalid DNS update message from "IP".
> The packet was rejected."

Hi Bill,

Very likely that the system attempted to update by name only. If it's not part of the domain it won't have a Primary DNS Suffix.

That means it sends an update like:

"hostname"  A  10.10.10.11

Instead of:

"hostname.domain.com." A 10.10.10.11

However, impossible to really verify unless you start playing with Debug Logging in DNS (or use a Packet Sniffer).

Chris