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tgarrityFlag for United States of America

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Changing DNS

From the research I've done, I know that this is a limitation of what NIC settings can be controled via GPO. One of those challenges is changing the Primary and Secondary DNS servers.

We are a static IP assignment enviroment. What solutions if any (including 3rd party software) are available that would allow us to change the DNS servers automatically rather than having to manually touch each PC to change these settings?

Thanks,
Tim
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Getsum_Bloodlust
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do you have a domain controller on your network. if so, might be worth implementing a DHCP server and creating reservations for each machine. Could be time consuming dependent on how many machines you have.
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yes, the domain controllers are here on sight. Thanks for bringing up that point about DHCP. I haven't considered that yet.

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The DNS entries are in the registry here:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\Tcpip\Parameters\NameServer

You can create a registry file with the changes and then deploy it to all computers via policy, logon script, batch job or various other methods.
Probably the best option is to make the changes on a single computer via the network options. Then in regedit go to the above key and export (right click on Parameters key and click export). Save this as a .reg file that can be deployed to every PC on the domain (excluding servers).
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chakko
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Not too sure what's going on here but here's the problem.
I installed the DHCP role on our Windows 2008 R2 domain controller.
I defined the scope and set a reservation for just my IP (for testing purposes)
As soon as I release my static IP address on my PC using command prompt, I get an error message stating there is an IP conflict on the network.

This doesn't make sense A) we are a staic IP enviroment B) I created a reservation for my PC using the MAC address on my NIC

Any ideas?
Remove the reservation on the server and set the PC to obtain IP automatically.
Ensure the scope of the DHCP server does not include the range of current static IP addresses.
For example if the highest IP address is 192.168.0.23, start the DHCP scope at 192.168.0.24.
This will avoid conflicts.
Then once your PC gets an IP from the server, you can reserve it again. This should avoid any conflicts.

Once that is done you can change each PC to dynamic IP one at a time. I'd reserve the IP on the server (in the above listed scope) then change the PC to dynamic.
Once all PCs are done you can extend the scope if you wish.
If you want to keep the existing IP addresses, then you should change all PCs to DHCP first, then set the scope on the server, then reserve the same IP from before.
Please let me know if I lost you with the above.
In the DHCP service on DHCP Properties Advanced Tab, have you tried changing the Conflict Detection attempts to 1 or 2 ?
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Rartemass:

Thank you for your reply, but this did not solve the problem.
Could it be that DHCP needs to be turned on our Cisco router or even on our HP ProCurve switch?
chakko:
Set to 2 attempts
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I will do so and submit my findings. Thanks for the assistance.
Sorry, didnt get a chance to do this today. Will test tomorrow. Thanks
Thank you!