leta37
asked on
New Domain
Hi,
I am about to setup an internal network, with a few winxp clients and a win2003 server acting as a domain controller. Users will login and have a network drive and roaming user profile.
I have done this before, and the internet connection was provided by a hardware router setup with DHCP - so all clients and the server received their IP's automatically, along with DNS etc.
The network I am about setup will require me to assign an IP to each machine, and a DNS - will I encounter any issues when setting all this up? Will providing fixed address info stop the client from connecting to the server properly? Any info would be great.
-Lee
I am about to setup an internal network, with a few winxp clients and a win2003 server acting as a domain controller. Users will login and have a network drive and roaming user profile.
I have done this before, and the internet connection was provided by a hardware router setup with DHCP - so all clients and the server received their IP's automatically, along with DNS etc.
The network I am about setup will require me to assign an IP to each machine, and a DNS - will I encounter any issues when setting all this up? Will providing fixed address info stop the client from connecting to the server properly? Any info would be great.
-Lee
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In the example above, your SERVER should be running the Microsoft DNS Service - OR you should have a DNS server somewhere on the network that supports Service records and Dynamic Updates. In the VAST majority of cases, people install the Microsoft DNS service on the Domain controller.
So, with DNS on the domain controller, the DNS address the network card on the server should be set to is that of the Server's IP address - in this example, the CORRECT DNS setting would be 192.168.0.1. The clients would use the SAME DNS setting - 192.168.0.1 - NO OTHER DNS Servers should be specified. Using other DNS servers OR not using a compliant DNS service will frequently result in problems accessing the network, slow logons, and possibly an inability to logon. Other issues may arise as well if you use other services, such as Microsoft Exchange.
> Trust me, I know how much easier this is with a crappy hardware router running as your
> DHCP - if I could get away without using the fixed IP's, I would - for some reason who ever
> setup the current network infrustructure, it requires each computer have a dedicated IP
> address (god knows why).
This is NOT TRUE. Your router should NEVER be set to hand out DHCP addresses in a domain environment. Primarily because routers are usually not very configurable. The DHCP server included with Windows is the best option. As for each computer having a dedicated IP address, this is not a problem. Setup DHCP and setup reservations for each computer - you can even preset the reservations so that once you change them over to DHCP from static, they still get the same address. This will allow you to more easily adjust various network settings if and when you need to.
So, with DNS on the domain controller, the DNS address the network card on the server should be set to is that of the Server's IP address - in this example, the CORRECT DNS setting would be 192.168.0.1. The clients would use the SAME DNS setting - 192.168.0.1 - NO OTHER DNS Servers should be specified. Using other DNS servers OR not using a compliant DNS service will frequently result in problems accessing the network, slow logons, and possibly an inability to logon. Other issues may arise as well if you use other services, such as Microsoft Exchange.
> Trust me, I know how much easier this is with a crappy hardware router running as your
> DHCP - if I could get away without using the fixed IP's, I would - for some reason who ever
> setup the current network infrustructure, it requires each computer have a dedicated IP
> address (god knows why).
This is NOT TRUE. Your router should NEVER be set to hand out DHCP addresses in a domain environment. Primarily because routers are usually not very configurable. The DHCP server included with Windows is the best option. As for each computer having a dedicated IP address, this is not a problem. Setup DHCP and setup reservations for each computer - you can even preset the reservations so that once you change them over to DHCP from static, they still get the same address. This will allow you to more easily adjust various network settings if and when you need to.
ASKER
Thanks, I will see how I go :-)
ASKER
Just in relation to DNS, as an example say I have the following setup:
Server [IP 192.168.0.1] (domain controller)
Client1 [IP 192.168.0.2]
Client2 [IP 192.168.0.3]
I have a couple of DNS addresses:
NS1: 10.1.1.1
NS2: 10.1.1.2
Presume, I would set the DNS on the server to those above - would I then set the DNS IP on the clients to the IP of the DNS servers, or that of our domain server?
Trust me, I know how much easier this is with a crappy hardware router running as your DHCP - if I could get away without using the fixed IP's, I would - for some reason who ever setup the current network infrustructure, it requires each computer have a dedicated IP address (god knows why).
Although with this in mind, could I get away with the server running on the fixed info, and the clients feeding off the server for their IP address? I just dont want other computers on the network to get their IP from my server if its setup with DHCP.