Direct Access status Always "Connecting" on Windows 8

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Have you ever had experience about this issue?

I deployed some Direct Access and I've got several problem with this technology, may be "Connecting" issue is the most headache problem.

There are many causes can involve this behavior I will talk about two causes.

First cause with IP-HTTPS error code 0x2AF9

Status Connecting and Direct Access does not working

If you run netsh by command promps on Windows Client: netsh interface httpstunnel show interface and get the follow message:

Interface IPHTTPSInterface (Group Policy) Parameters
————————————————————
Role : client
URL : https://directaccess.yourdomain.com:443/IPHTTPS
Last Error Code : 0x2af9
Interface Status : failed to connect to the IPHTTPS server

then you can must check DNS name resolution and client PROXY configuration.

If those following statement ore true:

  1. correctly resolve URL directaccess.yourdomain.com
  2. don't need proxy and proxy configuration is disabled
  3. firewall, between your client and directaccess server is correctly configured

then your should check this registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iphlpsvc\Parameters\ProxyMgr, if you can see any sub-Keys below ProxyMgr key then delete the whole ProxyMgr key and restart your DirectAccess client.

Second cause

Status Connecting and Direct Access does working

Check your company DNS server zone for Directaccess-WebProbeHost.yourcompany.local entry and if it missing then create the entry with DirectAccess server internal IP (use VIP if you have NLB)

Read more: Cannot Reach the DirectAccess Server with IP-HTTPS (https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee844126(v=ws.10).aspx)