Laptop DNS settings

[exactiv]

Hi,

I'm not sure how to phrase this as a question, so I'll put down what I have and then what I want, any suggestions would be very helpful.

* * * * *

What I have:
I have two 3com Office Connect Wireless Gateways (

http://www.3com.com/products/en_US/detail.jsp?tab=features&pathtype=purchase&sku=3CRWE52196),

each one in a separate building, each one connected to DSL. The first one is in my companies head office (I'll call this site 1); the second one is in a sub-office (site 2).

In site 1, the gateway, a Win2000 Server running as a domain controller, DHCP, DNS (with my ISP's DNS servers set in DNS forwarding), Active Directory etc., and 20 Win2000 workstations (the workstations and server are hardwired, not wireless). We have it set-up so each user can roam throughout the building (gp folder redirection), also as a file server.

In site 2, we just have the gateway (running as a dhcp server), 1 WinXP, 1 WinME and 6 Win98 Laptops (all wireless).

* * * * *

The laptop users need to have access to site 1's server as well as the use of the DSL connection, but they also need to use site 2's DSL connection.

The problem is that the DNS servers have to be set in tcp properties for site 2, whereas in site 1 the Win2000 Server handles that through DNS forwarding.

* * * * *

What can I do to sort out this problem? Any Ideas would be much appreciated.

-exactiv.

 

[sgscit]

At a guess, you could set the DNS servers in DHCP so that the DNS settings are assigned to the PC's/Laptops as they login.

With 9x machines you may need to have them do a winipcfg release all/renew all.

Another option is possibly to upgrade to XP on the laptops as it allows multiple IP configurations.

hope this helps.

Pete

 

[hdingman]

Why not add the site 1 server manually to site 2's router? I'm not sure with 3com, but with Linksys you can manually add a DNS server to the list for DHCP distribution by the router. See if you can add a manual DNS, or alternatively just put your site 1 DNS and then the first 2 DNS entries from DSL.

I'm assuming (guessing) that there's VPN or wire between the sites, in addition to the DSL to the internet?

Howard Dingman
Pro-Tel Communications
Endicott, NY