Tek-Tips is the largest IT community on the Internet today!

Members share and learn making Tek-Tips Forums the best source of peer-reviewed technical information on the Internet!

Register Log in
  • Congratulations strongm on being selected by the Tek-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!

Setting up home network 2

Status
Not open for further replies.
TDK2001

TDK2001

Programmer
Oct 30, 2001
18
GB
I've been playing about with my setup below but cannot get any reliable connectivity between my lan machines and the net. Would anybody be able to advice me on setting up my networt properly?

1 x W2K Server, IIS, Exchange Server 2000
1 x 2600wi
1 x Desktop PC
1 x Laptop
1 x BTBroadband with dynamic ip
1 x domain registered with ZoneEdit which points to my dynamic ip

Should my server have enabled DNS, DHCP, WINS etc or should the router take care of the DNS and DHCP.

I would also like to host my own websites and mail server (not ideal on the same box I know but it ill have to do for now)
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
OK,

You haven't really explained your network very well mate. I assume that you have 2 clients (desktop and laptop) connected via a wireless gateway to the server. The server then has a second NIC to the router or is the router seperate and plugges into the WAP (Wireless Access Point)?

I can't really recommend DHCP/DNS on a router as I don't know it - and knowing BT I wouldn't trust just to dial up, let alone do networking! :)

If you want help and support with DNS/DHCP in the future with TT I would recommend using the Win2k server.

Plug the router into your server, and then plug the server into the network. Get Internet access on the server. Once that is done, setup DHCP so that all clients point to your server for DNS and Gateway services.

Set your DNS forwarders to point to your ISP DNS servers.

That should get you a start.


Steve Hewitt
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
TDK

If you're gonna have ur BT Router deliver the DHCP, then all the client machines are gonna have to be able to see the router directly - ie they will all need to be connected to it.

Best scenario - have 2 NICs in the W2K server - connect one to the BT and connect the other to your internal hub/router/lan.

Set up DHCP on the server to deliver to the clients, and gateway them through the IP address of the server's internal NIC.

That way you're only having to protect your server because that is the only one that's visible to the Internet - all your clients can see out, but no-one can see in.

hth

H

Hany Mustapha
Excellent Technology Solutions in the UK -
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
But remember your DNS forwarders! (The times i've seen that happen!) L-)

Steve Hewitt
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
At the risk of sounding pedantic, I wouldn't set up DNS forwarders as a matter of course - if you use your local DNS server and let it go out and find as necessary, then each of your clients can enjoy quicker DNS resolution as a result of there being a cache being built up on a local server, rather than having to go out to the Internet every time.

Respectfully an' all that! ;-)

H

Hany Mustapha
Excellent Technology Solutions in the UK -
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
LOL!

Maybe I am mistaken. But I thought (and I could look the fool here! ;-)) that DNS forwards simply send out requests that they cannot resolve. So internal addresses wouldn't require an internet connection, just external addresses which should always be resolved on the Internet due to changes in DNS.

Like i said, that is what my (humble!) understanding is!

Steve Hewitt
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
stevehewitt, my router is also a 4 port switch and firewall with NAT. I've been playing and everything seems ok except that the client machines (when trying to joint my Win2K server domain) report that there are no domain controllers available. Could this be something to do with my ZoneEdit settings?

BTW, thanks everyone for their hellp so far.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Ah - ok - maybe terminology confusion - happy for it to be on my part!

Steve, you're absolutely right in what u say - only consideration:

I've seen it on a few of the installations that we look after that the DNS server stops forwarding requests (it's enabled by default). If u do have trouble, go into DNS manager and see if it's got a zone that is simply a period... a full stop... then delete that zone!

H

Hany Mustapha
Excellent Technology Solutions in the UK -
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
How is your DNS setup now? Is it Win2k Server or the Router? If the router I would check that. If its the Server I would make sure that your have a SRV (I think) record. This record basically tells any requests to the DNS server where the Domain Controller is for authentication. Also, I would ensure that your clients are using the IP settings. I once (my first play at networking) setup a client on 110.110.1.1 (God knows why) and the server on 192.168.0.1. Of course they couldn't communicate - but it was my first time playing! Took 2 days to discover why! (The joys of learning!)
Can you ping/browse to the server? If so try going to the run box and typing \\servername\c$. If it asks for a username/password then don't post back! (Joking!)
If not then double check IP settings, cable, NIC, the switch etc.

Thinking more about it, I would strongly recommend using the Win2k Server for DNS if you are using a domain. Security and intergration - even more so if you are going to use DHCP. Also, if you are planning to use ISA server scrap the idea of having the firewall/router/switch thing acting as the switch as all traffic that goes off to the ISA server that gets rejected (banned) will go straight to the router and go via that way. I had to find that out the hard way!!!

Steve Hewitt
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
sounds like you need to install a NAT server from what I read..then set all your clients to use the NAT server as a default gateway...you'll need two NICs in the NAT server, one for the public network and oen for your private network...thatll just work til you bring you web inside though, then you'll need a static IP from your ISP
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
also, if you set up a domain and are using active directory (or plan on it), you need DNS, as it will be required by active directory...you do have one other alternative for letting other connect to the net through your server...internet connection sharing....

much easier than NAT if you have little experience.

just for reference...forwarders actually speed up resloution because they too cache information. If you do not use forwarders, you will have to edit your root hints file (bad idea if you dont know DNS and its partners in crime on the itnernet)

BWilson77080
MCSE, MCSA, A+
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I haven't looked at your site yet, but I would assume that ZoneEdit has nothing to do with an Internal Active Directory Domain. I'd guess its relevant to your website or email?

Any chance of an update? You haven't really kept us up to date. And don't forget, if anyone has helped you in this thread try to star them.


Steve Hewitt
MCP, MCSA, LEARNING! ;-)

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Sorry, been away for a while. You are correct ZoneEdit has nothing to do with AD, what they do for me is handle the DNS for my domain (coz I got a dynamic IP from ISP). I have setup ZE with several "A" records (ftp.mydomain.com, mail.mydomain.com etc. etc.) and 2 MX records one of which points to my server and the other a backup hosted by ZE (don't realy know if all this is the correct way to do it but it seems to work).

My router is currently handling the DNS requested and server the DHCP stuff (again don't know if this is correct but it works). I know you recommended DNS on the server but I've not had time to do it yet.

This is part of the ipconfig on my server, any comments appreciated:-
Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : server
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . : mydomain.com
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : mydomain.com
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.100
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1

Tim
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
really all nds inside will do for you anyway is make you find other systems on your internal network faster...if you have AD running though, you need to have DNS too, or it wont operate correctly
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I have got AD running and everything seems to work OK??
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
... are there any tests I can do to establish wether AD and DNS is working correctly?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
not if you havent made reverse lookup zones....
all you have to do to see if you ahve dns installed is go to start|settings|control panel|administrative tools|DNS

Reason DNS is needed by AD is the fact that it uses hostnames and such to find things......

it installs itself with a very very basic configuration with a root zone and the name of your domain during the isntallation of AD. Root zone can be deleted with no harm as long as you turn on forwarders
in order to actualyl troubleshoot DNS worth a crap, you neeed to create a reverse lookup zone...then you can use teh nslookup tool

BWilson77080
MCSE, MCSA, A+
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

DTGMI
  • Locked
  • Question
WIN 10 Pro PC & Adding back to our Network
Replies
0
Views
197
DTGMI
DTGMI
mangentle
  • Locked
  • Question
What could be the potential causes if a Microsoft Windows Server is experiencing slow network!
Replies
1
Views
399
gbaughma
gbaughma
nukeinfer
  • Locked
  • Question
Internet restrictions for isolated PCs in the Network
Replies
1
Views
205
mangentle
mangentle
Scparks
  • Locked
  • Question
Trouble with setting up a SMTP Relay to Office 365
Replies
0
Views
93
Scparks
Scparks
StevenFromSouth
  • Locked
  • Question
VPN Connects but cannot access remote network computers or folders
Replies
1
Views
116
StevenFromSouth
StevenFromSouth

Part and Inventory Search

Sponsor

Back
Top