LAN Name Resolution Problem

[ElijahBaley]

Hi I have a problem with name resolution within our private IP network, this is the config:

IP Adress: 10.10.10.x (DHCP Assigned)
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway: 10.10.10.2 (Our internet firewall/router - connects via leased line to ISP)
DHCP Server: 10.10.10.5 (This is also our NT PDC)
DNS Servers: 195.x.x.x
195.x.x.x (Public name servers hosted by ISP)

The NT server is also a WINS server (windows internet name server) which resolves Netbios names to IP and up until now I have not had any problems amongst the wintel clients.

However!

We also have two Apple Mac's on our network. They use Ethernet and have the same IP config as above (One Mac has a static address, due to a separate DHCP problem) and have full Internet conectivity.

I am testing a MS Exchange server (no problems with wintel clients) and have tried to connect the Outlook 2001 client for Apple Mac's to it - i get a error saying that the server can not be found, either by Netbios name "MAILSERVER" or IP address 10.10.10.6

I have tried a IP utility on the MAC called Mac TCP Watcher v2.0.0 - if I do a PING on 10.10.10.7 it appears to work OK

BUT!

The Mac TCP Watcher displays a message upon startup "failed to find the DNS name for this MAC"

So after writing this it seems to me that while windows/PC's can resolve names using WINS the MAC's will need local DNS.

Can I do this? can I have a NT run a "private" DNS server on our non public LAN but also use our ISP's public name servers for Internet resolution?

What would you recommend?

Thanks in advance for any help,

Graham





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[CCIEWANNABE]

Your question: "private" DNS server on our non-public LAN but also use our ISP's public name servers for Internet resolution?

Remember this DNS does not control routing or affect connectivity.

Have you consider making a secondary name server in your network and pointing your nodes and servers to both your IP server and a secondary server?

Windows2000/NT/XP/ME you use Specify Name Server Addresses , in 95/98 use DNS Server Search Order in MAC

Alternate DNS Server

Primary DNS: 195.x.x.x
Alternate DNS: 10.10.10.xxx an address value that will not cause a conflict.

Make sure your make a static value and notify the DHCP server the value you use in its configurations should not be assigned. You will have to decide who will be the primary or secondary DNS value in your re-design.

Route once; switch many

 

[ElijahBaley]

Thanks for your comments CCIEWANNABE!

I always felt that a DNS server for our small LAN would be overkill for the problem as described, I have created hosts files on the two Apple Macs which has resolved the problem.

Cheers,

Graham
(CCNA Wannabe)


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