DNS, DHCP, Networks Errors. Would not create a local connection. 1

[Regulluz]

Hello!

I'm trying to set up a local connection in my network within SBS 2003 R2. I have a local router, and 2 network adapters in my server. I want the server to control the communications within the local network, but it seems there's something I am doing wrong.

When clicking the Connect to the Internet, I answer the questions of the Wizard, and when it is configuring, it stops with an error saying that it could not finish the network configuration. When looking at the Event Viewer, it shows the DHCP and the DNS reporting errors and then it would not allow me to set up the connection again until restart. The server connects happily to the Internet, but I have no clue what's going on with the network.

DO you guys have any idea?
\Thanks!

Reg

 

[ShackDaddy]

Go into the admin tools for both DNS and DHCP and try and configure them to only listen on the interface that touches your internal network. Part of the problem might be that they were trying to operate on your server's external interface.

In the DHCP Admin, get properties on the server name. Go to the Advanced tab and click Bindings. Make sure it's only got the internal network checked.

In DNS, get properties on the server name (not the records), and look at what's on the Interfaces tab.

Are you running ISA server?

ShackDaddy
Shackelford Consulting

 

[Regulluz]

Hello ShackDaddy and Million thanks for your helpful comment.

I did all of what you said and the services are now working fine. That led me to discover what I think is the main problem but before, I want to mention that in the Interfaces, it was marked as ALL INTERFACES. I changed it to the local Interface. Not sure if that is correct but for the moment I think it won't make a difference anyways. Also, I'm running SBS Standard, so no ISA server is at hand at the moment.

In the binding, it now says mylocalnetwork. I also disconnected the local interface from the actual network and plugged it into an empty spare switch I have, since it seems there's another DHCP server in the actual network and that I still don't know which one is.

Anyways, the problem is now that RRAS would not start. I ran a SVC Query and it seems that the ISA DB is damaged. So I now have to retrieve the DB from the CD and after that, I'll let you know how it went... unless you have any other suggestion.

Million thanks again and have a great day tomorrow!

Regads,

Regu

 

[ShackDaddy]

The other thing you can do for RAS (I think) is to run the SBS2003 setup again (from Add/Remove Programs) and remove and re-add the RAS component. I don't recall right now whether it's an "optional" component or not. If it's not, then you wouldn't be able to do this.

Glad I was able to help you.

ShackDaddy
Shackelford Consulting

 

[Regulluz]

Hello all!

ShackDaddy, I didn't see an option to add or remove RRAS from the Add or Remove program, so I did as Microsoft says in this KB 840686article. It basically didn't worked in the first place, but brought up a whole different error, which is explained in this other KB 317158 article. So I did that other thing, and viola! I now have RRAS service running. One thing, though.. the local interface, is not being assigned an IP, so it now says Limited or Not Connectivity. How can I tell DHCP that this interface has a static IP and that this is the actual server?

Thanks again for your help and time!

Regu

 

[ShackDaddy]

I'm not completely clear on what you are asking, so I'll guess.

If your adapter doesn't have an address, you need to use the Network control panel and configure the TCP/IP settings on that adapter and give it a static address. You don't need to tell DHCP anything except which adapter to listen on.

Neither of the adapters should be configured to use DHCP. You want to go into the DHCP Admin tool and set the service to listen on the internal adapter, so that when clients on that side of things (the inside) send broadcasts requesting DHCP addresses, the server can respond appropriately.

ShackDaddy
Shackelford Consulting

 

[Regulluz]

Thanks for your quick reply, WIZ!!!

You guessed right! And now its fixed. Now, remember up there about the DNS Interfaces properties? Check this out (you should know how it works very well already...) If I set it to listen only on the local IP, then my server gets no internet access, but the clients do. So i set it to listen on both.

Regardless, everything seems to be working fine. So for now, we're done in this part, and this problem has been solved! You have earned a star and a nice dinner with your family when never you come down to Old San Juan.

Now, I'm heading to the security forum to clear my head about access policies, and then to the AD forum for mounting network drives automatically in OS X.

Million thanks!

regu

 

[ShackDaddy]

Make sure that your server is only pointed at itself for DNS, not at your ISP's DNS servers. If you want, you can configure your ISP's DNS servers in your Forwarders tab in the Server properties in DNS Admin.

ShackDaddy
Shackelford Consulting

 

[Regulluz]

Hey ShackDaddy!
Millon thanks again!

Yes! The DNS server is pointing to my ISP's DNS in the Forwarder's TAB. It was configured automatically, since I never touched that, so I guess it is ok.

Thanks again and have a great day!

Regu

 

[Regulluz]

Hey Shack! I have found another problem: I am unable to access my router from the server. What could be wrong?

Thanks!

 

[ShackDaddy]

On the server, assign a default gateway to your external interface only. Don't assign one to your internal interface. Set your external interface to use your router as the default gateway. See if that changes anything.

Can you ping the router IP from the server?
From a workstation? The server is between the workstations and the router, right? Are the workstations on a separate switch from the router? What are the ip addresses of the internal and external interfaces of your server? They are in different subnets, right?

ShackDaddy
Shackelford Consulting

 

[Regulluz]

Well, check this out... now I have more issues.
I can now see the router from the server, after removing the gateway from the local connection.

Local connection IP was:
10.0.0.1
255.255.255.0

Internet Connection is:
10.0.0.74
255.255.255.0

Since you mentioned something about different subnets, I went and reconfigured the DHCP server and changed the subnet of the local connection. It is now:

10.0.0.1
255.255.0.0

As of now, I do have plenty of access to the router. BUT, my local network has lost access to the server. I'm still working on a fix, but to be honest, I have no clue how I created this mess.

As of this moment, the network is as follows:

Router - Server - Switch1 - Local Network.

While setting up the whole thing, I was using another switch, and then used this configuration which worked fine:

Router - Server - Switch1 - Switch2 - Local Network

But this one also failed after making the changes noted above.

What have I done???!!!

Have a good night!

 

[ShackDaddy]

You are still using the same subnet on both networks.

Use 10.0.0.0/255.0.0.0 on the public side between your server and the router.

Use 192.168.5.0/255.255.255.0 on the internal network.

You can set the router interface to 10.0.0.1 and your server external interface to 10.0.0.2, and use the router address as your default gateway.

On your internal interface, configure the server to use 192.168.5.1 as the IP address, 255.255.255.0 as the mask. Don't configure a default gateway. Then set up DHCP to give out addresses between 192.168.5.100 and 192.168.5.150. Have DHCP also provide a default gateway (192.168.5.1) and a DNS server (192.168.5.1) to the clients.

ShackDaddy
Shackelford Consulting

 

[Regulluz]

Hey, Shack!

Thanks! It works like a charm! I ode you a lot!!

I think I need to go and get some training on TCP/IP.

Million Thanks!

Reg

 

[ShackDaddy]

Go ahead, ode me. Doesn't have to rhyme.

ShackDaddy
Shackelford Consulting