DNS not working over VPN PPTP connection

[pogi05]

We have a Windows 2003 RRAS server which also hosts DNS, WINS and DHCP (It's a small office with 15+ employees).

Everyone in the office, when VPN'd in, has DNS issues when trying to connect via the computer name. On my XP client, I cannot ping computers/servers on the local netowrk via computer name or even the FQDN. However it does work via the IP. I can access files as well as long as I use the IP.

"ipconfig /all" shows that the VPN connection has taken up the proper DNS and WINS servers settings from the DCHP...

I can get to the internet fine, after VPN connection, so I don't know what route my client is taking when connecting there.

Any Ideas or suggestions of where to look??

Thanks,

Chris

 

[rliebsch]

I'd manually set the DNS address to an internal DNS server in the PPTP VPN TCP/IP settings.

and clarification: you CAN get to the internet while connected to the VPN?

Robert Liebsch
Systems Psychologist,
Network Sociologist,
Security Pathologist,
User Therapist.

 

[pogi05]

Thanks for the suggestions Rob.

I added both internal DNS servers to the PPP VPN TCP/IP properties, as well as set the "DNS suffix for this connection" as mydomain.local -

And yes, I can still connect to the internet when I connect to our Company VPN server. There is no split tunneling that I know of configured on the client, so I'm not sure how I'm getting resolution?

I'm continually researching...

Chris

 

[pogi05]

Does anyone have more suggestions?

I have checked the routing tables when VPN'd in, and it shows my local subnet destination with the gateway set as my PPTP connection Ip address, which I assume is correct? And my default gateway is shown as my local subnet gateway. (I have the use Remote Gateway option selected).

I have found no other alternative suggestions online..

Thanks in advance,

Chris

 

[FloDiggs]

If you go to

http://www.whatismyip.com

while connected, you will know where your traffic is going for internet access.

What VPN client are you using?

 

[pogi05]

Thanks FloDiggs,

I have found a solution online. I was using the Windows XP VPN client, and when I used nslookup after making a VPN connection, my DNS server was still my ISP provider and not my internal office DNS. This was supposedly a problem with XP that had not been fixed...

Here is the article that explained the problem in XP, it requires a registry edit that puts the PPP adapter at the top of the bind order:

http://www.isaserver.org/tutorials/work-around-VPN-clients-split-DNS.html

It is also a great guide, because it has a VBscript that can create the registry change which you can deploy with the CMAK. Connection Manager Administrator Kit (or whatever).

which links to this Microsoft KB:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;311218

Hope this helps anyone in the future!!

Thanks all for the feedback.

Chris