Network newbie qs (repeated)

[Georgios N. Manolopoulos]

Hi all (and happy new year BTW...)

I have a small office network with the following configuration

-2 DC (W2k AdvSe SP4)
1. Acting as DNS, WINS, DHCP, RRAS and Gateway (ISA incl) to the
internet (via permanent DSL connection)
2. Acting as Exchange, Web and File Server (is also Firewall client,
Exchange, Web, FTP etc works fine)
Both GC (probably dont need this for my conf)
Acive Directory seems to work ok (synchronisation etc)
-6 internal client PCs all WXP SP1a
-1 Network plotter
-2 remote laptop users with WinXP SP1a connecting via VPN

DCs have static IP addresses (private range)
Network plotter and clients use DHCP (ipconfig list correct DNS and WINS
settings)
I use VPN for remote users to connect to my resources, so far everything ok

Q1.
Do I really need WINS? Is DNS not enough?
Q2.
I want my users to be able to browse the network. Do i need Netbios enbaled
over WINS to do this?
Q3.
This is probably a browser issue, randomly my clients are not able to browse
the network (get a message to contact the administrator for relevant rights)
but are able to find the copmuter they are looking for if they use the
windows search command. After having located the computer they search for,
they are able to browse its shares(?)! Following the search procedures they
still can not browse the network neigbourhood. They only way to accomplish
this, is to disable their wan connection and reenable it (this says to me
that is probably a browser issue). They dont get any 8032-8021 event ids.
Is this ok? I guess not.
Q4.
The second DC gives random 8032-8021 event ids (random not periodically...).
Using the Browse monitor utility on the RSK I get healthy results (both
servers shown as master/backup browsers respectively). File and printer
sharing is enabled throughout my network. Permissions are OK, no
restrictions etc applied through GP that may cause the event id's. Any clues
why the events appear?

In general I would like if possible to dismiss anything other then TCP/IP in
my network. What considerations shall I make prior to that? (I will not be
using pre-W2k machines)

Thank you very much for your time...I know those are many qs....

 

[Jason Helms]

Hi all (and happy new year BTW...)

I have a small office network with the following configuration

-2 DC (W2k AdvSe SP4)
1. Acting as DNS, WINS, DHCP, RRAS and Gateway (ISA incl) to the
internet (via permanent DSL connection)
2. Acting as Exchange, Web and File Server (is also Firewall client,
Exchange, Web, FTP etc works fine)
Both GC (probably dont need this for my conf)
Acive Directory seems to work ok (synchronisation etc)
-6 internal client PCs all WXP SP1a
-1 Network plotter
-2 remote laptop users with WinXP SP1a connecting via VPN

DCs have static IP addresses (private range)
Network plotter and clients use DHCP (ipconfig list correct DNS and WINS
settings)
I use VPN for remote users to connect to my resources, so far everything ok

Q1.
Do I really need WINS? Is DNS not enough?

You do not need WINS. WINS was used for resolving NetBIOS names in earlier
versions of windows. With Win2000 and above, DNS is used to resolve
hostnames.
WINS is included for backward compatibility with any NT4 or earlier machines
that are attached to your Windows 2000 domain.

Q2.
I want my users to be able to browse the network. Do i need Netbios enbaled
over WINS to do this?
No.

Q3.
This is probably a browser issue, randomly my clients are not able to browse
the network (get a message to contact the administrator for relevant rights)
but are able to find the copmuter they are looking for if they use the
windows search command. After having located the computer they search for,
they are able to browse its shares(?)! Following the search procedures they
still can not browse the network neigbourhood. They only way to accomplish
this, is to disable their wan connection and reenable it (this says to me
that is probably a browser issue). They dont get any 8032-8021 event ids.
Is this ok? I guess not.

Try making sure that each user is granted the "Connect to this computer from
network"
setting in the Local Security Policy for each computer, as well as in Active
Directory.

The second DC gives random 8032-8021 event ids (random not periodically...).
Using the Browse monitor utility on the RSK I get healthy results (both
servers shown as master/backup browsers respectively). File and printer
sharing is enabled throughout my network. Permissions are OK, no
restrictions etc applied through GP that may cause the event id's. Any clues
why the events appear?

Try setting the ISDomainMaster attribute to TRUE on your Domain Controller.
Its in the registry under
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Browser\Parameters.

You can also (re)install DNS on your second DC, and stop/start the browser
service
on each DC and see if that will help it to sync up.

In general I would like if possible to dismiss anything other then TCP/IP in
my network. What considerations shall I make prior to that? (I will not be
using pre-W2k machines)

Unless your users are accessing a different protocol via the internet
(doubtful.. ex. they
were hitting a remote novell server or unix server or something like that)
then really the only thing you would need is TCP/IP. On the network I
manage,
I run TCP/IP only.

HTH-

Jason

 

[Georgios N. Manolopoulos]

I disabled Netbios over TCP/IP and clients do not see anything other then
the domain name under the network neigborhood, is that ok?

 

[Jason Helms]

Can you browse a machine by \\machinename?

 

[Marina Roos]

On the internal servernic Netbios over TCP/IP should be enabled. It should
be disabled on the external nic.

 

[Georgios N. Manolopoulos]

If netbios is enabled on the internal NIC(s) everything works fine...
If not, then I can not see any machines under Network Neigbourhood, but I
can connect via \\machine name