2000 Server Internet Problem

[Guest_imported]

I have a 2000 Server running with 3 Win ME clients. This morning I started having a problem with internet access. I couldn't access the internet from any of the 4 machines. After some testing, I found that if I ping an external IP, I could then get name resolution through Internet Explorer. In this case I pinged a friend's IP address. This went on all day until I set one of the ME machines up to the internet without going through the server. It works fine. All this is through a cable modem so by taking the server out of the equation, I believe I can say it's not the ISP. So, it looks like the server is causing this problem some how. Any suggestions or ideas? I'm stumped

 

[interfact]

Have you tried rebooting the server. I have found that some settings have seemingly had no effect but then the problem has resolved on rebooting.

 

[eap88]

It's not clear to me how your ME machines are configured for DNS or IP addressing. This is the first thing I would check. If they are pointing to your Server for DNS, then it would indicate that the server is the problem. Check your server DNS settings, is it running DNS service? Are your forwarding ip's correct? If your ME clients are receiving ip's from the server via DHCP, try to add external ip's as DNS options instead of going through your server to resolve names.

 

[Dixiedi]

I know this may sound over simple, but try unplugging the hub and plugging it back in. (The cable line that is.)
We used to be on a cable line and this solved the problem.

 

[Guest_imported]

I am using DHCP instead of DNS service. The 3 ME comps are set for obtaining IP automatically. I went through the motions of unplugging the cable to the modem and the cat5s for all connections. Rebooting the server at least four times didn't help. This problem occurs from all locations including the server. I think I'll disconnect the hub from the server to see if server alone will duplicate the problem. My hub is behind server not behind modem.

 

[tlcscousin]

make sure the scope is authorized.It could have lost authorization.Another is has the service started or not.

 

[webnetwiz]

Dude, you can't use DHCP "instead" of DNS, because they are totally different services! The DNS is solely responsible for resolving FQDNs (fully qualified domain names, e.g.

http://www.cisco.com).

The DHCP is responsible for distribution of IP addresses to your clients. The DHCP can carry DNS server IP addresses as part of the scope option. You absolutely must have DNS in order to browse the web. You can setup your Win2K as an internal DNS to resolve URLs for your WinME machines.

David.

 

[Guest_imported]

Here goes, First off check the gateway the machines are using. It should reflect the IP address that your ISP has pushed back to you. Second Is the server machine getting that IP address assigned to it? The way it works is, The 4 machines use a gateway(Host machine) to get thier info from the internet, if you dont specify the proper gateway then thier not going to get connectivity..thier not getting online.And i'm not sure what you mean by name resolution, but try this.. Goto the DOS prompt and try to "ing -a" a popular website and see what you get. This does two things, First off it tells whether you have connectivity, and secondly it lets us know more specifically where the problem resides..Either your settings and PC or the server. Also i'm assuming that your server PC is a windows 2k advanced server box, if so check the config. of it. In active directory you have to setup the machine to be able to access the servers resources(The ISP connectivity). And my friend, webnetwiz is right, DHCP, Or dynamic Host Config. Protocol, Is what pushes you back an IP address, DNS, Or Domain Name Service, Is what resolves Domain names.

 

[Guest_imported]

It should read "Ping -a" above.

Sorry

 

[2651]

I had a similar problem. I resolved it my doing a number of things.

1. Is your DNS server the only one on the network, or are you also using your ISP's DNS servers. If you are using your own DNS server, you will need to tell the DNS server to forward unknown requests to your ISP's DNS (DNS, select your server and right click for properties). I found that by deleting the root lookup zone (the dot at the start of your forward lookup zone), DNS was ok. The dot tells your DNS server that it is the authorative DNS server for your zone. If the Authoritive DNS server comes back with a "don't know" response it will not query another server so you will get DNS errors.

2. Also check which interfaces DNS is listening on. You'll find that it'll probably be listening on your internal and external network cards. If your dns server is located on the private, non routable network then select only that I.P. address for DNS to listen on. I would also deselect the round robin option within DNS properties.

3. Now have DHCP configure the clients so that the DNS server is your internal one (should show IP address as 127.0.0.0). These clients should be using the IP address of the internal network card as their gateway.

4. THe two server network cards should be configured as follows:

Internal Card - no gateway, internal DNS server.
External Server - gateway is your ISP router, and DNS should be your ISP's DNS server(s).

Within RRAS, you should check that each interface is correctly configured, as either internal or external.

Also check that your DNS reverse lookup zone is correct. An nslookup should show the following if your DNS is forwarding correctly.

H:\>nslookup microsoft.com
Server: localhost
Address: 127.0.0.1

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: microsoft.com
Addresses: 207.46.230.218, 207.46.230.219, 207.46.230.220, 207.46.197.100
207.46.197.102, 207.46.197.113


The local host is my DNS server saying I don't know what microsoft.com is, so I'd better check with the ISP's DNS - hence the non-authoritive reply. (I don't see much point in you and your ISP both being authoritive - let your ISP worry about most of the DNS stuff)


And lastly, check to make sure your static routes are OK. You should have one that points your external nic to the internet i.e. destination address (the internet) 0.0.0.0 and subnet will also be 0.0.0.0.

As an aside, I ran into problems with NAT being configured with a pool of useable I.P. addresses. Once I configured the pool to only contain one address, everything worked OK.

I hope there's something from the above which will point you in the right direction. Failing that, a recheck of all your network protocols wouldn't be a bad step. A couple of pings should indicate to you where the problem is. Using ping with the '-t' flag will allow ping to run for as long as you like. Ctrl -c will end it when your ready.