Some users have been having intermittent errors (Outlook occasionally reports Exchange disconnected, errors in event viewer about not being able to find domain controller, etc). Some troubleshooting seemed to indicate DNS.
Performing nslookup from a user's workstation reported: 192.168.x.1, x.x.x.194, and 192.168.x.85. 192.168.x.1 is the server's internal address, x.x.x.194 is the external address, fine - 192.168.x.85 seems to have come out of the blue. I don't even see 192.168.x.85 anywhere in the DNS manager! Not even in the Reverse Lookup Zone. I suspect that the users' workstations are trying to connect to 192.168.x.85? Please help me stop this behavior.
Since all the IP Subnets you listed above seem to be PRIVATE subnets there is no harm in you posting a COMPLETE IPCONFIG /ALL from both the SBS as well as a problem workstation. That really is the best way for us to find the problem.
(perhaps with the exception of your x.x.x.194 IP, so just change that if you like)
The fact that you erased the host names makes it difficult to see what's what... it would have been better if you replaced them with generic names instead...
BUT... I can see right off that you have some serious errors in your DNS Configuration.
Your adapters seem to be binding backwards. The Local Area Connection is your INTERNAL NIC, and the Network Connection is your EXTERNAL NIC.
You should ONLY have your SBS's IP address listed for the DNS Server IP (ie, 192.168.137.1) and NO OTHER's. Your ISP's DNS IP addresses should be entered as "Forwarders" when you run the Configure Email and Internet Connection Wizard (CEICW -- which is linked as Connect to the Internet in the Server Management Console > To-Do List)
Also, why do you have 192.168.137.3 configured as the DHCP Server? What exactly is that device? Because on an SBS-based network its best to have your SBS act as the DHCP Server, and with a TWO-NIC Configuration your SBS will also be the gateway for workstations. Again, there should ONLY be your SBS's IP address for the DNS Server IP on the Workstations as well. If you had followed the SBS documentation, all of this would have been automatic. To move DHCP back to your SBS, follow the instructions at the bottom of http://sbsurl.com/dhcp
The guy who set this all up got canned. I'm trying to clean up his mess. Most of the above is in the process of being fixed, but it's slow going because most of the wizards (including CEICW) can't complete without errors. I'm trying to schedule some downtime because it should probably just be reloaded, but in the meantime I was trying to smooth things out as much as I could and that erroneous DNS seems to be causing at least some of it.
Long story short, believe it or not, despite the above, things are running well enough that users can get their work done. I don't think any of those issues would cause an address to just appear in DNS. Thanks for the suggestions, though. Are there any other settings I could provide that might be helpful?
If the CEICW won't complete, you need to fix the problems thats causing it to fail. Those things rarely cause any downtime... perhaps a single reboot, but usually it doesn't even require that. I've fixed many DNS/DHCP issues on SBS's remotely, so I know that it can be done with little interruption to the users.
You really need to follow the suggestions I've made if you want this to work right.
