I have a Windows Server 2003 machine. My boss just replaced our router today, but he accidentally reset the IP settings. The server is getting its IP address just fine, but I can't figure out what to put in for its DNS values. I'm not very familiar with DNS as my backround is in computer repair. Can anyone help? I'll be here until it's fixed. Thanks!

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Dan Pemberton
Vacaville, CA

Member, First Baptist Church San Luis Obispo
Formerly ABUSA (We left, so I guess that makes us American Baptists Unleashed!)

It's all there, I just don't know how to figure out what to put in on my Primary & Alternate DNS Server. I'm not even looking to do anything fancy, I just don't know how to determine what numbers go there.

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Dan Pemberton
Vacaville, CA

Member, First Baptist Church San Luis Obispo
Formerly ABUSA (We left, so I guess that makes us American Baptists Unleashed!)

I would go to a forum that specializes in it. Is the router set up for DHCP or does it assign a static IP?

If a static IP has been assigned then you probably only need to enter the subnet mask and the default gateway for the server as well as the IP's for the DNS gateways if they are not auto-assigned.

Again, I recommend going to a forum like anandtech.com or webhostingtalk.com and ask some questions there. They might even point you to an even better forum to ask those kinds of server configuration and DNS questions.

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Rich
Northern VA
OPC

WebsiteMaven - Web Hosting Reviews, Guides, and Advice to build and promote your web site.
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Yeah, I've my static IP ready as well as my default gateway. It's just the blank DNS values that are throwing me off.

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Dan Pemberton
Vacaville, CA

Member, First Baptist Church San Luis Obispo
Formerly ABUSA (We left, so I guess that makes us American Baptists Unleashed!)

If your client that you're surfing with right now is on the same network as the server then go to the command line (if you're using XP) and type "ipconfig /all" and it will tell you what your DNS values are for the client you're using.

If you're on Linux or MAC then I don't know how to find it easily but that's how I find my DNS IP's using Windows XP and Vista.

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Rich
Northern VA
OPC

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OH.... You're trying to enter the DNS values for the server's nic. Not setup the server to serve DNS to your LAN.

MY BAD...I misunderstood, that's easy enough.

Goto Control Panel.

double-click "Network connections".

right-click "Local area connection"

select "properties"

double-click "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)"

Fill in the blanks.

Is that what you're looking for?

and Ditto what Rich said for finding the DNS values you should use.

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Steve Butts - Former SBC-er
Three Forms of Unity - Bradenton CRC - Bradenton, Florida
(A conservative member in a conservative congregation)

"Of two evils, choose neither." — C.H. Spurgeon

I did that, but the problem is is that it's blank.

I just learned that the router is assigning the server it's static DNS (a little detail they forgot to tell the new guy). I'm telling the server to take that now. Let's see what happens...

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Dan Pemberton
Vacaville, CA

Member, First Baptist Church San Luis Obispo
Formerly ABUSA (We left, so I guess that makes us American Baptists Unleashed!)

No, I got there already. I just had no idea what to put into the blanks.

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Dan Pemberton
Vacaville, CA

Member, First Baptist Church San Luis Obispo
Formerly ABUSA (We left, so I guess that makes us American Baptists Unleashed!)

As stated above, if you are using DHCP, the router should obtain the DNS settings from the upstream provider (whether that is the DSL or cable provider). If they are not auto assigned then you will need to contact whoever provides your internet service to obtain them. Most ISP's have a server that provides DNS services. However, there is no rule that you have to use the ISP's DNS server. One option you could use is to try OpenDNS which provides DNS services and also the added bonus of free filtering of websites. They have detailed instructions for setting your routers DNS setting here.

__________________
Steve Kellam
Ruling Elder
Redeemer ARP Church (Blacksburg, VA)
Husband to Holly and father to Bethany, Susannah, and Charlotte (and one on the way!)
“Prayer is as natural an expression of faith as breathing is of life” -- Jonathan Edwards

Also, if you can access the router's interface it should show you the values it uses. You can put those in your workstation and they should work.

You can also put the gateway's IP in the workstation's Primary DNS field and that will probably work too.

__________________
Steve Butts - Former SBC-er
Three Forms of Unity - Bradenton CRC - Bradenton, Florida
(A conservative member in a conservative congregation)

"Of two evils, choose neither." — C.H. Spurgeon

I thought I heard that we had some other arrangement for our DNS, so I counted the router out of the equation. It may just be what I was looking for...

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Dan Pemberton
Vacaville, CA

Member, First Baptist Church San Luis Obispo
Formerly ABUSA (We left, so I guess that makes us American Baptists Unleashed!)

...but if your client is using the same router then the router can "see" the internet and a DNS is resolving names for you. Why is the client able to access DNS and the server is not if they are on the same network?

Is your client assigning a static IP or is it just set up to obtain an IP and DNS information from the router?

__________________
Rich
Northern VA
OPC

WebsiteMaven - Web Hosting Reviews, Guides, and Advice to build and promote your web site.
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The latter.

Okay, the server is obtaining the IP and DNS from the router, but we're still having the same problem as before - no one can get on a remote connection to the server from home.

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Dan Pemberton
Vacaville, CA

Member, First Baptist Church San Luis Obispo
Formerly ABUSA (We left, so I guess that makes us American Baptists Unleashed!)

Before you troubleshoot DNS any further, ping a hostname like puritanboard.com from the server to see if it can resolve a hostname. Maybe it's not a DNS issue.

__________________
Rich
Northern VA
OPC

WebsiteMaven - Web Hosting Reviews, Guides, and Advice to build and promote your web site.
SoliDeoGloria.com - A Community for Reformed Thought and Discussion

Click to get: Board Rules -- Signature Requirements -- Suggestions?

It sounds more like a firewall issue if you are having trouble accessing the server from outside the network. DNS is really only used to resolve domain names to IP addresses. If you have a static IP on the server, you should be able to access it from outside without even having a DNS server.

You may want to try turning off the firewall temporarily on the router and see if you can access the server.

__________________
Steve Kellam
Ruling Elder
Redeemer ARP Church (Blacksburg, VA)
Husband to Holly and father to Bethany, Susannah, and Charlotte (and one on the way!)
“Prayer is as natural an expression of faith as breathing is of life” -- Jonathan Edwards

Assuming the issue is what I think it is, which I'm not quite sure of:

You should be able to set the router so it automatically obtains the DNS server address.

Failing that, give your ISP a quick call. I used to work tech support for a large ISP here in Australia, and we often had to give out the DNS server address if clients' modems weren't picking it up automatically. They were very quick calls, we all knew the numbers off the top of our heads, could just recite them when a client rang up and asked.

<<Crossposted with about 4 posts. What I said may no longer be relevant, or I may have misdiagnosed the problem>>

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T W Hopper
Member, Presbyterian Reformed Church
Currently between churches since PRC closed here - attending Crossroads Christian Church.
Canberra, Australia.

Here's where I am at now. The DNS problem is over (I showed up this afternoon and was told that was the problem and to fix it. I don't think it was the whole picture). The Remote Desktop Connection is not working for the users. I thought that it could be a firewall issue, but the firewall on the router and on the server are both turned off.

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Dan Pemberton
Vacaville, CA

Member, First Baptist Church San Luis Obispo
Formerly ABUSA (We left, so I guess that makes us American Baptists Unleashed!)

My suspicion is that you had some kind of port forwarding on the router that was replaced that needs to be replicated on the new router. You will need to forward the ports for the Remote Desktop Connection to the server that you are running on the LAN.

__________________
Steve Kellam
Ruling Elder
Redeemer ARP Church (Blacksburg, VA)
Husband to Holly and father to Bethany, Susannah, and Charlotte (and one on the way!)
“Prayer is as natural an expression of faith as breathing is of life” -- Jonathan Edwards

Could say that a little slower please? I don't see any port forwarding on the router (I see it, but nothing is listed).

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Dan Pemberton
Vacaville, CA

Member, First Baptist Church San Luis Obispo
Formerly ABUSA (We left, so I guess that makes us American Baptists Unleashed!)

Routers work by translating incoming traffic and forwarding it the appropriate computer on your network. When you are accessing webpages and surfing the web, the router sees the traffic going out and knows to forward incoming traffic back to the same computer that requested it. However, if people at home are trying to access a server behind a router, there has to be specific port forwarding to forward their traffic to the particular server. From what you are describing, their Remote Desktop Connection was working until the router was replaced. This suggests that there was port forwarding set up to tell the router to use the Windows 2003 server for Remote Desktop connections. Which ports you would need to forward depends on what protocol/software they are using for their Remote Desktop Connection.

__________________
Steve Kellam
Ruling Elder
Redeemer ARP Church (Blacksburg, VA)
Husband to Holly and father to Bethany, Susannah, and Charlotte (and one on the way!)
“Prayer is as natural an expression of faith as breathing is of life” -- Jonathan Edwards

This might help.

__________________
Steve Kellam
Ruling Elder
Redeemer ARP Church (Blacksburg, VA)
Husband to Holly and father to Bethany, Susannah, and Charlotte (and one on the way!)
“Prayer is as natural an expression of faith as breathing is of life” -- Jonathan Edwards