DNS suffix

[mike]

I am trying to set up a network consisting of a Win ME PC
connected to the Internet via cable modem and sharing out
the connections via Internet connection sharing and a
wireless router. I have 2 XP machines that work fine. I
also have one Win2000 laptop, which I can't figure out. It
connects to the wireless router, but I cannot get a
reliable connection to the internet. Sometimes it works
when I define a DNS suffix in the TC/IP Properties, but
when I restart, the Internet connection is gone again.
Sometimes the suffixes I put in are still there, sometimes
they are gone.
Here are my questions:

As I am setting up a network that uses private IP
adresses, should I use a DNS suffix? If so, which one?
(The connection is utimately through Comcast).

What are the suffixes used for anyway? and what are the
effects of the different settings in the IP properties?

mike

 

[Brian Oakes [MSFT]]

The suffix shouldn't be a factor in this case. What the suffix is used for
is when the system tries to access a resource it appends the
machine/connection specific suffix to the end of the query. Example:

machine. - is not valid.
machine.domainsuffix.com. - is valid.

Notice that on each name I have a . at the very end. This is added by the
client when the name is access or queried. . is equal to root (internet
wise).

So if we say are trying to access machine.domain.com. we are actually going
to devolve to find the auth name server for the domain you are requesting,
then we will query the host.

All that being said...

If you W2K system sometimes isn't working and it's wireless I would honestly
check the wireless config first and make sure that is rock solid. If you are
having issues make sure you can ping other local clients by IP, then make
sure you W2K system has valid DNS Servers. Let us know.
--

Brian Oakes

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