LanModem making spurious calls to ISP

[Pariah]

Hi,
One of our new branches (I have just inherited as we acquired the shop
recently) is running a 2000 Server with Terminal Server for 4 clients to
remote desktop to use the stock package. There is a LANModem which was
previously used to dial in and config the server.
The tech who was looking after the system no longer works for the company as
his contract with the old owners was not renewed. His last job for us was to
config the LANModem to dial out to the ISP automatically for web access.
I am now getting 6000 spurious calls per month on the ISND bill.

- The DNS Server event log shows no problems however the system log shows
many Netlogon DNS errors.

- The LANModem gives the following as the reason for the spurious calls
"DNS query from Server for
_GC._TCP.DEFAULT-FIRST-SITE-NAME._SITES.MAINGROUP.COM"
Server being the Server name and maingroup.com the domain name.

- The system log cites the same or similar alerts in all the errors
concerning DNS

- I think this stems from the fact that all the PCs and the server have the
LANModem set up as the DNS Server in the TCP/IP config - but the Win2000
server is running DNS Server for Maingroup.com

- The DHCP was also set up on the LANModem for some reason.

Is there anything anyone can suggest other than clearing everything down and
reconfiguring the DHCP and DNS from scratch? (This is my current
inclination - but as I have to do it over a 64kbps ISDN connection it wil be
a pain in the behind)

 

[Kevin D. Goodknecht Sr. [MVP]]

In

Hi,
One of our new branches (I have just inherited as we acquired the shop
recently) is running a 2000 Server with Terminal Server for 4 clients
to remote desktop to use the stock package. There is a LANModem which
was previously used to dial in and config the server.
The tech who was looking after the system no longer works for the
company as his contract with the old owners was not renewed. His last
job for us was to config the LANModem to dial out to the ISP
automatically for web access.
I am now getting 6000 spurious calls per month on the ISND bill.

- The DNS Server event log shows no problems however the system log
shows many Netlogon DNS errors.

- The LANModem gives the following as the reason for the spurious
calls "DNS query from Server for
_GC._TCP.DEFAULT-FIRST-SITE-NAME._SITES.MAINGROUP.COM"
Server being the Server name and maingroup.com the domain name.

- The system log cites the same or similar alerts in all the errors
concerning DNS

- I think this stems from the fact that all the PCs and the server
have the LANModem set up as the DNS Server in the TCP/IP config - but
the Win2000 server is running DNS Server for Maingroup.com

- The DHCP was also set up on the LANModem for some reason.

Is there anything anyone can suggest other than clearing everything
down and reconfiguring the DHCP and DNS from scratch? (This is my
current inclination - but as I have to do it over a 64kbps ISDN
connection it wil be a pain in the behind)

This could be a Couple of problems. The most likely cause is the dialup
either has your ISP's DNS in it TCP/IP properties or is using DHCP to aquire
your ISP's DNS. You need to configuire the Dial up to use your local DNS
server's IP address. This is a problem because AD stores its Service and
Resource (SRV) records in DNS and will attempt to register its addresses in
the DNS server addresses listed in the interface.

Another thing to look at is the domain names listed in the search list on
the DNS tab. If you have a name listed in the search list that does not have
a zone in DNS. The DNS name is appended to all DNS queries and your server
will attempt to resolve the name using its Root Hints or by using the
Forwarders listed in your DNS server on the Forwarders tab. So you should
only have the DNS name of you local domain in this search list. The default
setting is to append with the primary and Connection specific DNS suffix.

As for DHCP if this dial up is only used for Dialing in to your ISP and
accepts no dial in connection, go into you DHCP server properties on the
Advanced tab, click the Bindings Button and check only the check boxes that
DHCP should be listening on.

 

[DanK.]

My first move would definetly be to move DHCP & DNS to the server.

Also check to see if the LANmodem is able to block or at least gnore Netbios
traffic for dialing.

DanK.