This happens sometimes. After a server reboot, clients say they get “Error Code: H202 This company file is on another computer, and QuickBooks needs some help connecting” and you find the QuickbooksDB service is stopped. You start it but it just stops with the error “The QuickBooksDB26 service on Local Computer started and then stopped.  Some services stop automatically if they are not in use by other services or programs.”

This is happening because of contention over port 55333. The DNS server and the QuickbooksDB service both want to use it by default. If the DNS Server service starts before the QuickbooksDB service, DNS grabs it and QuickbooksDB doesn’t choose another available port and just stops.

You can manually resolve this by stopping the DNS Server service, then starting the QuickbooksDB service, then starting the DNS Server service.

To fix permanently,

1. Stop the DNS Server and QuickbooksDB services
2. Reserve the port using netsh from an elevated command prompt:
netsh int ipv4 add excludedportrange protocol=udp startport=55333 numberofports=5
3. Start both services