2000 server setup

hi there, ive been searching around for a few weeks trying to find
some answers for this but nothing.
Just to let you know i have taught myself most of the setup of the
systems...

Our old setup was:

4 computers around office and house connected to DSL via a router
the router acted as DHCP server and DNS relay to our providers DNS
servers.

The new setup:

Now we have a second hand windows 2000 server machine in the mix.
this was so that everybody can log on to any computer and get their
own documents and files. and as you can imagine 6 users had their
files absolutely everywhere before.

Now the router is still acting as DHCP server mainly because i didnt
want the computers to be stuck for an IP address if the server is
down. And the router is very reliable.

I wanted the router to continue to act as DNS server/relay but i
couldnt get active directory to work unless the server was doing the
job.

So this means that the poor old server is having to look after
everybodies DSN requests and when you have three people online it
slows everything down. (not too much)

Also i dont like the fact that if the server is ever down none of the
computers can get online.

Any ideas?

cheers,
Tim

"Tim" wrote:

> Just to let you know i have taught myself most of the setup of the systems...

Good for you Tim!


> Now the router is still acting as DHCP server mainly because i didnt
> want the computers to be stuck for an IP address if the server is

Understand. However, make sure that the router allows you to configure the
DNS IP address to point to the internal Win 200x Server. Otherwise, clients
may have problems locating / accessing AD and internal resources. This is
quite unlikely though as they will resort to broadcast and probably still
succeed if all are on same IP subnet. If the Win 200x Server fails, changing
this parameter will remove the dependency in DNS name resolutions.


> I wanted the router to continue to act as DNS server/relay but i
> couldnt get active directory to work unless the server was doing the job.

Not quite true. Win 200x can still be the DNS for your internal AD domain
serving all clients. Just configure it to forward all other DNS requests to
the router's IP (per what you have now).


Do let us know if this helps. Thanks!

Hi,

I'm in the same situation. I want my router to continue as the DHCP server.
And I only need DNS setup on the Windows 2000 server for the purpose of
Active Directory.

How did things work out for you? And in the case where the server goes
down, do you know if its possible for the workstations to "remove" themselves
from the domain so that they can still function (outside of the network of
course) and continue to access the internet via the router? Or will they
never be able to login without the server?

Also, did you setup the "forwarding" that Desmond suggested? And if so, do
you have any details about how that is done?

Thanks.

"Tim" wrote:

> hi there, ive been searching around for a few weeks trying to find
> some answers for this but nothing.
> Just to let you know i have taught myself most of the setup of the
> systems...
>
> Our old setup was:
>
> 4 computers around office and house connected to DSL via a router
> the router acted as DHCP server and DNS relay to our providers DNS
> servers.
>
> The new setup:
>
> Now we have a second hand windows 2000 server machine in the mix.
> this was so that everybody can log on to any computer and get their
> own documents and files. and as you can imagine 6 users had their
> files absolutely everywhere before.
>
> Now the router is still acting as DHCP server mainly because i didnt
> want the computers to be stuck for an IP address if the server is
> down. And the router is very reliable.
>
> I wanted the router to continue to act as DNS server/relay but i
> couldnt get active directory to work unless the server was doing the
> job.
>
> So this means that the poor old server is having to look after
> everybodies DSN requests and when you have three people online it
> slows everything down. (not too much)
>
> Also i dont like the fact that if the server is ever down none of the
> computers can get online.
>
> Any ideas?
>
> cheers,
> Tim
>