Windows 2000 connectivity issues

[hocking]

This is my first time posting to this group, so I hope I am following all the rules correctly. I have a Windows 2000 network at home, consisting of a Windows 2000 advanced server & several windows 2000 professional desktops and laptops. All the computers are networked using Linksys 10/100 NICs, and are connected to a Linksys cable router. The cable router is currently the DHCP server. The server was primarily acting as a FTP server, and as a file server to map drives to, and all the PCs have been part of a workgroup. I have my files located in the server, and have been able to sucessfully map a drive from any of the PCs to the server. I have been trying to work toward having the server be the domain controller for the PCs. I have setup an account on the sever so that I can join the PCs to the domain. I am able to join my laptop and my desktop to the domain, but with many difficulties. When I enter my username and password from one of the PCs, and hit enter, it takes almost three minutes to connect. I don't understand this, because the server and the PCs are pretty fast, and the network is a 10/100 switched network. I have even connected a PC directly to the sever, through a 10/100 switch, taking the router out of the equation, and this delay login still occurs. Then once I am on the domain, I am unable to browse any of the PCs on the network, from either network neighborhood, or from UNC'ing to it from a command prompt. When I have the PC connect as part of a
workgroup, I am able to browse to, and open any PC on my
home network, but when I am logged into the domain, I can
see the computer name in network neighborhood, but I can't
open it. I also can't map a network drive to the server
while logged into the domain, but if I am part of the
workgroup I can. I have my Microsoft Windows 2000 server
and professional study guide books for the MCSE track, and
have tried to resolve this issue by reading them, but have
ran into a dead end. I have also failed to be able to set
up a DCHP server on my server. I installed it, authorized
it, set up the scope, activated it, disabled the cable
router DHCP server, restarted the server and the PCs, and
still am unable to renew the PCs IP address, in order to
pick up a new IP address from the server. Sometimes when
I try to log onto the domain from one of my PCs, I get an
error message that the domain controller is unavailable.
Then I go to the server and open up any program (just to
get the server moving) and then I am able to log into the
domain, weird. It seems that the server is going to
sleep, but I have checked the power setting in windows,
and the BIOS setting, and nothing I can see is allowing it
to go to sleep. This Windows 2000 server and client
install has been quite a project for me. I have way too
many hours setting this up. I finally was able to get my
FTP server working from outside of my home, so that I can
access my files from work, or where ever. I don't have a
clue where to go next from here, and sure would appreciate
any help in this matter. I am a Desktop Support
Technician by trade, supporting Windows NT & 2000
clients. I have my A+ & MCSE certs in NT 4.0, so I feel I
should be able to handle these issues, but don't have a lot
of experience with installing and configuring servers. I decided to start to studying for my 2000 certs, and thought having a working 2000 network at home, would make studing for it easier, but so far it has been a rough road. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated?

 

[brontosaurus]

Hi. You didn't mention whether or not the Domain Controller is multi-homed, but if it's not, it should be. Hopefully, I'm reading your post correctly, but basically, here's what I think is happening (and I'll keep it brief): Setting up your DC seemed to go OK, however, you will need to set up DNS and DHCP minimally (WINS wouldn't hurt either, but isn't necessary) running off this DC, and serving your 2K clients internally off of the second NIC I mentioned. DNS on the DC will need to have the root "." zone deleted, and forward out to your ISP's DNS server for resolution of queries that it can't handle (any internet queries). The DC's primary NIC should be connected to your Linksys, getting an address from there. This second NIC should be connected to a plain hub, along with the NIC's of all your other 2K clients, using some bogus set of internal addresses, like 192.168.0.X with a mask of 255.255.255.0. You'll need to set up either ICS (internet connections sharing), or RRAS with NAT on the DC. Most of the more experienced techs here will tell you to go with RRAS, it's more stable, but it's your choice. Now, your 2K clients will need to be armed with an internal IP address, and the IP address of your DC as primary DNS, Gateway, as well as WINS if you decide to go with it. Now, once that's done, all of your clients should be able to see domain resources and join without a problem. Essentially what was happening, the way you had it set up before, is that your 2K clients were trying to resolve your internal domain name via your ISP's nameservers. Obviously, your ISP don't know diddly about your internal domain, thus the difficulties that you experienced....Anyway, there's more to this whole situation, but hopefully this will start you on the right track. Let us know how it goes.