Relationship to DNS and DHCP

[Fred Marshall]

Normally DNS and DHCP are associated aren't they?

I'm working on a network that doesn't use DHCP and, yet, there are no DNS
servers listed. It seems to work. How does it work?

There is a WinProxy server that goes to the internet.
There is a Cisco Router that goes to a private network.
All computers can see both.

How can DNS be blank on some of the computers and still have normal www
acess?

Thanks,

Fred

 

[Kent W. England [MVP]]

Normally DNS and DHCP are associated aren't they?

I'm working on a network that doesn't use DHCP and, yet, there are no DNS
servers listed. It seems to work. How does it work?

There is a WinProxy server that goes to the internet.
There is a Cisco Router that goes to a private network.
All computers can see both.

How can DNS be blank on some of the computers and still have normal www
acess?

DNS and DHCP are not associated, except that DHCP can tell its client
what the IP addresses of its DNS servers are.

If this is an IP-only network, names are resolved to IP addresses from
the local hosts file and then from one of the DNS IP addresses. Is there
a WINS server on this network?

 

[Fred Marshall]

DNS and DHCP are not associated, except that DHCP can tell its client
what the IP addresses of its DNS servers are.

Well, right. That's the normal thing isn't it? Seems like a pretty big
relationship to me. That is, if DHCP is used then the DNS issue is dealt
with because the IP addresses of the DNS servers are provided via DHCP just
as you've said above.

If this is an IP-only network, names are resolved to IP addresses from
the local hosts file and then from one of the DNS IP addresses. Is there
a WINS server on this network?

I'm not sure what you mean by "IP-only". As contrasted to what?
The computers all have static IP addresses.
With the exception of the routers, all of the "computers" are Windows
systems with computer names and a workgroup assigned.
There is no WINS.

I believe the computers with no DNS addresses are set up this way:
Static IP address, subnet and gateway
When
"Use the following IP address:" is selected (for static IP address setting)
then
"Obtain DNS server address automatically" is grayed out
and
"Use the following DSN server:" is checked.

In this case, the DNS addresses below this setting are blank.
Yet, the computer can reach computer names on the internet (thus is getting
DNS somehow).

I don't believe the computers have hosts files - that would entail some kind
of configuration and maintenance wouldn't it?
So, what is likely that's making this work?

The gateway that's used refers to the IP address of the CISCO router that's
in the system.

Fred

 

[Kent W. England [MVP]]

I'm not sure what you mean by "IP-only". As contrasted to what?

So, what is likely that's making this work?

As contrasted to IP with IPX, NetBEUI, AppleTalk, etc. A multi-protocol
network.

With NetBIOS, you can resolve names to addresses without DNS.

The Winproxy you mentioned in your first message may be doing the DNS
resolution by intercepting the DNS queries, but with all DNS IP
addresses blank, I don't know what IP address they are using.