Re: DNS/Active Directory/2003 Enterprise/Confusion...

Tech-Archive recommends: Repair Windows Errors & Optimize Windows Performance

From: Bryan S Davis (BryanSDavis_at_discussions.microsoft.com)
Date: 09/29/04 

Date: Wed, 29 Sep 2004 11:05:02 -0700

Mike,

You are awesome, awesome, awesome. I can't tell you how grateful I am.
That few minutes of your time helped me immensely after I spent a ridiculous
amount of time on this. I even formatted the drive and started from scratch.
 The problem was that I was following a "how-to" from tomshardware.com on
setting up a Windows 2003 server, and it said all you had to do was specify
the router as the DNS server (NOT THE LOCAL DOMAIN DNS SERVER ITSELF AS YOU
RECOMMENDED). An ignorant person such as myself would just assume the server
knows it's running DNS services.

So per your recommendation, with the server IP specified as its own DNS
preferred server (with the router as secondary) NSLOOKUP now reports a
correct server name and address. I was even able to join an XP machine to
the domain now. And thank you for telling me about restarting the NetLogon
service, and reminding me to specify the DNS server from my XP machine.
Those extra little bits help a newbie like me.

I suppose I can continue to let my Linksys run DHCP because I can specify up
to 3 static DNS servers. (1 being the 2003 server and 2 being the Linksys
itself).

THANK YOU VERY MUCH,

Bryan

"Miha Pihler" wrote:

> Hi Bryan,
>
> Make sure that your Windows XP DNS configuration (under TCP/IP) points to
> your domain DNS (to your active directory server where your DNS server is).
> Also make sure that domain controller has DNS its configured (under TCP/IP)
> to point back to itself (enter either 127.0.0.1 IP or it's own IP). If you
> do any changes to DC's DNS restart netlogon service.
>
> Can you add your Windows XP to domain now? Can you ping your server by e.g.
> IP? If not can you post back IP configuration?
>
> Clients will use DNS to find domain controllers. If you point your client's
> DNS to e.g. your ISP they will not be able to join domain since your ISP
> doesn't know anything about your private active directory domain.
>
> Mike
>
> "Bryan S Davis" <BryanSDavis@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:DC767974-4238-404E-A9E7-5812967D12F1@microsoft.com...
> > Greetings,
> >
> > I received a copy of Server 2003 Enterprise from a colleague who attended
> a
> > Microsoft SMS class and received it as a promo. I have the action pack,
> and
> > I had previously spent 9 hours loading Small Business Server on a Compaq
> > Proliant 1600 (dual 350Mhz processors with 256MB of RAM) and it was so
> slow
> > it wasn't realistic to use it. I got my hands on 256MB of RAM and
> upgraded
> > to 512MB of RAM. It took less than an hour to install 2003 Enterprise
> (with
> > the memory upgrade -apples and oranges but I don't care because it's
> > fast...), and it runs great as a streaming media server, a terminal
> server,
> > and an application server. I decided to run Active Directory and let this
> > server manage the directory, so...
> >
> > I added the role of Domain Controller (Active Directory) and it forced me
> to
> > add the role of DNS server. It still runs great. The problem is that I
> > wanted to add a Windows XP client to the domain (letsgocrazy.com) and
> though
> > it was plugged into the same hub as the server it reported that
> > letsgocrazy.com is not accessible (or something similar) so I check it out
> > and learn that I have to CONFIGURE DNS. I didn't see that coming (I'm a
> > newbie, please cut me some slack). Here's where I start getting confused.
> I
> > read the checklists and overview and I think I understand DNS. My cable
> > modem is down (thanks Hurricane Jeanne) but I think I can forward lookups
> to
> > my Linksys router?? That's really not the problem though, and I'll worry
> > about it when the cable modem is back up but be appreciative of any
> thoughts.
> >
> >
> > My problem is that I can't ping letsgocrazy.com from either the 2003
> > Enterprise server or the XP client I am trying join to the domain -so of
> > course I can't add my computer to the domain. I tried to add a host to
> the
> > forward lookup zone with a name of letsgocrazy.com and an IP address of
> > 192.168.1.151 (the address of the server). I still can't ping
> > letsgocrazy.com from either computer?
> >
> > I suspect it's something simple, but I don't want to be a DNS expert. I
> > just want to get my active directory domain functional so I can learn
> about
> > the server softwares...
> >
> > I will be very grateful for any assistance, advice, thoughts, or direction
> > anyone can provide!!!
>
>
>

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