DNS issue ugh

V

VulturEMaN

Gawd
Joined
Sep 11, 2005
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I work in a building with a bunch of small businesses in it. The building has a dns server set up at 192.168.85.1 to give dns to each small business' servers. Our personal server has an IP of 192.168.85.84, which we use for active directory and dns.

My problem is that to be able to log into your computer correctly (and not have it take 20 minutes), you'd need to specify 192.168.85.84. But if you specify that in the network dns settings, then the employees can't connect their computers when they get home.

I'm sick at the moment, so i'm not seeing the easy solution so well. Help!
 
True..that's a mess. Your clients should be using your own servers IP for their DNS.

But...if you enter your servers IP, or even the 192.168.85.1, it would not work from home.

Or are you saying you have to run "obtain auto"..in which case you get 192.168.85.1 for your DNS?

Dang...sounds like all the offices are just connected to a switch/hub....and you can all poke into each others networks....double YUCK! Should at least VLAN each office...and allow you to run your own DHCP.
 
My server's ip is 85.84. The building's ip is 85.1

If I leave the settings on "obtain dns server address automatically" it'll just use 85.1 which I don't want, but if I put in 85.84, then the people will take their laptops out of the office and not be able to use them.

All of the business' servers are connected to the building server, but none of us can poke into each other's networks.
 
I'd put a NAT router in between your network..and the buildings network. Turn off DHCP on the NAT router, use DHCP on your server..configure your servers DHCP to hand out the proper addresses. This would require changing your networks IP range from 192.168.85.xxx to something different. Not really a big deal..investing the time, and expense of a router, for future proper network functionality IMO would be worth it. Right now your workstations basically are not logging into your server, active directory is broken....lost functionality.
 
Unlikely to happen. We are a non-profit so there's no money for equipment, not to mention the cabling is a nightmare.

What I wish I could do is have a client-side logon script (that launches before login) that will see if our domain is available and adjusts the DNS to change.
 
Get some network profile switching software on the laptops.
Set your workstations to fixed IPs with your servers IP as their DNS.....
Use the profile software for your "roadwarrior" laptop users....set a profile for "home" with full "obtain auto", and set a profile for the office...with hardcoded IP and DNS to your servers IP.

There are free ones out there, NetSwitcher used to be a good "pay for" one, I haven't used that since back in the Win9X days.
 
see, I saw netswitcher, but once again...non-profit, and I just spent a good bit of my budget to replace the dying SCSI drive with 2 SCSI drives so they don't lose everything.

I'll give netsetman a try, but i'd still like to see if someone knows of something automated like the script i described above.
 
Normally in this setting, all seperate offices should be on their own vlan bla bla bla. You have a mess on your hands.

Try the apps above to set the dns

Where do you get your dhcp from and can they set aside a block of statics for you to use?
 
wow NetSetMan is awesome :)

but my only problem is that if they come back to the office and try to login, they won't be able to change these settings before they can login.

I'm gonna try and figure out how to make a window appear before login asking where they want their settings to be used for, and then use netsetman's command line options to set it lol
 
Cant you just add their home IP and the DNS of their home ISP, in the advanced tab under TCP/IP properties? So when they get home their cable modem/router will hand them the available address from its DHCP scope and when they go browse the internet it will try the primary DNS/Secondary DNS then jump to third DNS entry thats their from their own ISP?

It seems like it would work to me, I haven't tested it, but i theorized thats what i would try to do if i ever add the few "roadwarriors" that my company has to the domain.

Although if you have a lot of roadwarriors that can get complicated with different home network configs and ISP DNS.
 
@Jutsu
To do that, I'd need to have 192.168.85.84 as DNS#1 and autoconfigure as DNS#2, which you can't do. I'm not about to go through 70 computers and ask each of these people to find their home DNS info for me.

I'm working on a vbscript at the moment that should do what i need.
 
VulturEMaN said:
@Jutsu
To do that, I'd need to have 192.168.85.84 as DNS#1 and autoconfigure as DNS#2, which you can't do. I'm not about to go through 70 computers and ask each of these people to find their home DNS info for me.

I'm working on a vbscript at the moment that should do what i need.
Click to expand...

wow 70 laptops on a non-for profit network with no control. Glad thats your job and not mine, best of luck to you.

Does the building have a managed switch?
 
lol i haven't a clue :p

its just a dell 1800 server with a basic setup and a bunch of shit plugged into the most generic looking switches i've ever seen, and loads of weird boxes all over the place that seem to be obsolete equipment.

the best part is that when i first saw the server room, they had the server above a leaky water pipe with a bucket ontop of the tower LOLOL and there was 1 cat6 cable that looked like shit running along the floor between the server and the switches

i'm gonna give my buddy who runs IT over at a major pittsburgh tech business to come over and give me an analysis lol

and btw, i apparently suck hard at vbscripts....anyone wanna give me a hint why it won't run? I'm getting an error on line 4 on the parenthesis

Code: 
dim MyVar
   MyVar = MsgBox("Click Yes If At Office", 4, "Mike's DNS changer")
if MyVar = 6 Then
   var WshShell = new ActiveXObject("WScript.Shell");
   WshShell.Run("cmd",2);
   WshShell.AppActivate("C:\\WINDOWS\\System32\\cmd.exe");
   WshShell.SendKeys ("cd C:\\Program Files\\NetSetMan");
   WshShell.SendKeys ("netsetman.exe -as 0");
elseif MyVar = 7 Then
   var WshShell = new ActiveXObject("WScript.Shell");
   WshShell.Run("cmd",2);
   WshShell.AppActivate("C:\\WINDOWS\\System32\\cmd.exe");
   WshShell.SendKeys ("cd C:\\Program Files\\NetSetMan");
   WshShell.SendKeys ("netsetman.exe -as 1");
end if
 
Can't you just setup .84 to forward to .1, and setup the DHCP scope to assign .84 as the primary DNS server?

Or setup the scope to assign .84 as the primary DNS and .84 as the secondary?
 
VulturEMaN said:
Code: 
dim MyVar
   MyVar = MsgBox("Click Yes If At Office", 4, "Mike's DNS changer")
if MyVar = 6 Then
   var WshShell = new ActiveXObject("WScript.Shell");
   WshShell.Run("cmd",2);
   WshShell.AppActivate("C:\\WINDOWS\\System32\\cmd.exe");
   WshShell.SendKeys ("cd C:\\Program Files\\NetSetMan");
   WshShell.SendKeys ("netsetman.exe -as 0");
elseif MyVar = 7 Then
   var WshShell = new ActiveXObject("WScript.Shell");
   WshShell.Run("cmd",2);
   WshShell.AppActivate("C:\\WINDOWS\\System32\\cmd.exe");
   WshShell.SendKeys ("cd C:\\Program Files\\NetSetMan");
   WshShell.SendKeys ("netsetman.exe -as 1");
end if
Click to expand...

Code: 
Dim MyVar
Dim strOffice, strHome
Dim objShell
strHome = "C:\\Program Files\\NetSetMan\netsetman.exe -as 0"
strOffice = "C:\\Program Files\\NetSetMan\netsetman.exe -as 1"
   MyVar = MsgBox("Click Yes If At Office", 4, "Mike's DNS changer")
if MyVar = 6 Then
   Set objShell = CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")
   objShell.run strOffice
ElseIf MyVar = 7 Then
   Set objShell = CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")
   objShell.run strHome
End if

maybe?
 
VultureMan, I hate to see a network out there suffering like yours. I think what you should do is map out how you can achieve the proper network in that building and lay out a budget for it.

Then come to me with parts you will need to "fix" the network and I will see what parts I can donate to push your plan forward.
 
Scobar said:
Can't you just setup .84 to forward to .1, and setup the DHCP scope to assign .84 as the primary DNS server?

Or setup the scope to assign .84 as the primary DNS and .84 as the secondary?
Click to expand...

Ya you should be able to do this, what handles your DHCP? Is it your server or your firewall? You should be able to create a scope for the laptops use which automatically assign them an IP and the DNS Server of .84. Then if you have DNS Forwarding configured on .84 to .1 you should be all set.

The clients will be able to leave their nic configs to automatic pull in the corrects settings at work and at home.
 
Have you thought about talking to the building IT department to see how you can get them to fix the setup to correct for companies like yours?

From reading this it sounds like you might be trying to fit a square peg in a round hole here. The location you are in might not be the best fit for your IT needs, either that or your IT needs needs to fit better with the current building solution. The other option is that who ever designed the IT for the building doesn't understand what they are doing.

I think if it was me, or this was one of my clients I would talk to the building people to see what we could work out to fix the issues.
 
ianshot said:
From reading this it sounds like you might be trying to fit a square peg in a round hole here. The location you are in might not be the best fit for your IT needs, either that or your IT needs needs to fit better with the current building solution. The other option is that who ever designed the IT for the building doesn't understand what they are doing.
Click to expand...

I've seen quite a few professional center buildings like this. They provide bandwidth to the offices/suites, and DHCP is running. If you run your own active directory, or wish to make your network private..gotta get your own NAT router, and close off your network.

You end up with a double NAT setup however, which can limit things. Answer to that of course...gotta bring in your own connection.
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
I've seen quite a few professional center buildings like this. They provide bandwidth to the offices/suites, and DHCP is running. If you run your own active directory, or wish to make your network private..gotta get your own NAT router, and close off your network.

You end up with a double NAT setup however, which can limit things. Answer to that of course...gotta bring in your own connection.
Click to expand...

We have a small office in another town and they are in an OfficeScape building. When I talked to their IT department they gave me a non-NATed Ethernet port, I provided my own Firewall/Router (which we plan on replacing with an MPLS router from our Telecom provider) and we are not double NATed. We do have a dynamic IP address on the outside interface of the router though.
 
I think I've figured out what I need to do, and i'll post back in here on monday if it works :)

also: i nearly perfected the logon script....and its effin crazy.
 
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