Windows 2K, long Loading Personal Settings, DNS and Sharing Internet..

[chakorules]

I upgraded a my server from NT 4.0 to Windows 2000 Server this weekend...

I've got a problem with only my Windows 2K Pro Workstation machines taking 10-20 minutes to loading personal settings when the workstation logs into to my windows 2000 server. I know this problem is related to the DNS settings somewhere I don't have a clue to what I need to do to make it better.


Here is my network setup:
I have a windows 2000 server, as a DC, AD is installed, DNS and DCHP are installed. Everything working as I know.
Fixed IP address of server is: 192.168.0.10

In the Local Area Connection, TCP/IP properties of my server I have: 192.168.0.10 for preferred and secondary dns.

I also have another dedicated computer that only has the internet connection enabled to share internet access to all my workstations. That computer is Windows 2000 Pro workstation and has a fixed IP of 192.168.0.1

Now in my Workstation Windows 2000 Pro machines are all taking an IP address via DCHP. starting at 11 (192.168.0.11)

In the Local Area Connection, TCP/IP properties of my workstation 2000 pro machines, I have set up:
192.168.0.1 for preferred and secondary dns, because this works when my clients want to access the internet, all the internet application work. I also have 192.168.0.1 setup for a gateway and WINS.

If I change the Local Area Connection, TCP/IP properties of my workstation 2000 pro machines to have a primary and secodary dns of 192.168.0.10, the Loading Personal Settings login problem goes away. Loading profiles is almost instant, however, now the client can not access the internet anymore.

How to I have the best of both worlds?

I've never been able to get the internet to work on my server, because I have the DNS (primary and secondary) settings as: 192.168.0.10. Which I was understanding that I needed the DNS to "Look at itself?" Did I do just that? When it looks at itself, then of course the internet does not work on the server.

I think what I need to do is change all the workstation DNS primary and secondary to 192.168.0.10, so my loading profiles are FAST like they should be, but then how to I get internet connection sharing to work on my client pcs, if they are looking at the server? Do I need to configure something else on the server? If so, what is it and how do I do it?

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[gasmask]

On your clients, leave primary DNS as 192.168.0.10; you don't need a secondary. If you don't have this set correctly, you're going to have some group policy/security policy/roaming profile problems down the line in addition to your 20 minute login times.

I don't think Internet Connection Sharing can work if you have your DC set up as a DHCP server, since ICS assigns IPs itself when you enable it. So you can't have the best of both worlds.

What you can do is set up your server as a gateway (Internet connection server). Make sure Routing and Remote Access Services (RRAS) is installed, and find and configure the applet through Adminstrative Tools.

 

[Evilbart]

point dns to .10

on your dns server(w2k server) add forwarders to your isp's DNS servers

have your default gateway to your .1

everything should work out fine now

//Bart

 

[chakorules]

I don't quite understand what your asking me to do.

I went to dns in my server, and clicked on New Zone. I selected Standard Primary. I entered concetric.net (that's the name of my ISP) I entered a file name. Then I clicked on concetric.net, properties, name servers tab, and I entered the DNS primary and secondary...

Did I miss anything?

Cause I am not sure this is working right. I did change the login DNS of my client win2K to .10 and left the gateway to .1


Chris Elston
FreeLancer

http://www.elstonsystems.com/eguidesp4v.html

Home of the How to Build a PC on Video CD-Rom

 

[Seaspray0]

Put your DNS server as the primary DNS server and set the one doing ISP as the secondary DNS server in the TCPIP settings on your clients. That should solve your problems.

 

[Evilbart]

dns, highlight server, right mouse click, properties

forwarders tab: fill in isp DNS

if it is grayed out : in forward lookup zones remove the .-domain and restart dns service (or restart server)

seaspray0 his solution also works, but prefered dns has to be the internal one and your default gateway is .1

//Bart

 

[chakorules]

I think you guys are really onto something here, but the main problem I see is that the server can not gain access to the outside world.

In the LAN TCP/IP properties of the server:
The server DNS as: 192.168.0.10 (itself) and a default gateway set to: 192.168.0.1 (the other computer computer running ICS). The server can not access any web addresses or anything like that. So the "Forwarding" that we place in the "internal DNS" does not work, because it can not get outside to the computer running ICS to lookup a DNS record from my ISP.

If I change the server DNS to 192.168.0.1 and gateway to 192.168.0.1, it works ok. But then the DNS Event log starts filling up with errors.

Anything else I can do and look into? BTY: Apprecaite all your time in helping me. Chris Elston
FreeLancer

http://www.elstonsystems.com/eguidesp4v.html

Home of the How to Build a PC on Video CD-Rom

 

[Evilbart]

put extra in forwarders : 192.168.0.1

use cmd, nslookup for testing dns

//Bart

 

[GreggLester]

The reason for your long load time, is most likely, due to the time it takes to load the user's roaming profile... if the user's roaming profile contains a lot of applications/documents etc on the desktop, this is sucked thru the network each time the roaming profile is loaded.

Imagine how long it would be if they had a 700MB movie file sitting on their desktop - Now, think how much that would slow down the server and all other network traffic

 

[ppabel1]

I have had the same/similar problem as you.

I wanted to setup DNS on my server so clients could log in quicker and then have it forward to my ISP for internet traffic.

I tried enabling forwarders and this didnt work. I havent got a clue if i need to create forward and reverse lookup zones and if so what i put in there.

Any ideas

Paul