Server 2003 Client Access issues

[Guest]

The system I am using is server 2003, although there is no specific
discussion group, I felt this to be the most appropriate. The server 2003
system is the small business server provided by gateway; so, the interface is
slightly different than the other products in the server 2003 family.
DNS,DHCP,Active Directory all configure upon first setup of the machine, the
maintain your server roles, server maintenance utility is unavailable.
At any rate upon setup the system auto-configured itself as a domain
controller, dns server, dhcp server, router; which is fine as I would have
needed to setup these abilities anyway.
The network architechture is a DSL-Modem/Gateway, attached to one NIC on the
server, a second Server NIC is attached to a hub, which all the other clients
are connected to. I have configured the intranet NIC with a nonroutable ip
address and subnet mask, the default gateway has been left blank on this NIC.
The Modem NIC is set to obtain all of its information automatically from the
DSL modem.
The clients have been configured with a workgroup name identical to that of
server's domain. All clients are recieving an ip from the win 2003 DHCP
server, as I can see their access leases; however, when browsing the network
from a client I can only see my other clients, the server does not appear. If
I browse from the server itself I can see all clients and the server within
the domain.
I assume there is a problem with the DNS server, but the fowarding settings
seem to be appropriate. Any assitance with this problem would be appreciated.
Thank you

 

[Steven L Umbach]

One thing to check is that in networking properties/advanced/advanced
settings the nic for the internal lan is at the top of the list. Browse list
problems can be a real headache. If you enable wins on your server and make
the server a client to itself and the other computers wins clients by adding
the wins server IP address to the DHCP scope, that may help as My Network
Places uses netbios name resolution. I would also disable netbios over
tcp/ip on ther internet adapter ONLY in tcp/ip properties advanced/wins.
Also look in Event Viewer for any errors that may provide a clue.

Having said that. If you are not using SBS ISA I would consider getting a
NAT/router firewall such as the Netgear ProSafe line and configure your
domain controller to have only one nic and then have all the computers point
to the router as their default gateway. Since you have a domain controller,
you might as well use it and join your W2K/XP Pro/W2003 computers to the
domain which can only improve performance and networking reliability. I
suggest that you also go into Domain Controller Security Policy of the
server and under security settings/local policies/security options find the
security option for network server digitally sign communications{always} set
it to "disabled" as that can cause networking issues with some client
operating systems. Make sure that the domain controller points only to
itself and the computers you want to join the domain point only to the
domain controller as their preferred dns server in tcp/ip properties before
you try and join them to the domain. --- Steve

 

[Brian]

I have tried your above suggestions but still have the
same problem. In fact when attempting to join an XP pro
client to the domain, i Recieve an error message to the
effect of, domain controller not found.
I have noticed that the DSL modem assigns an ip address
of 192.168.0.x to the internet NIC, I have the intranet
NIC configured at 192.168.0.2, could this be causing a
conflict; causing the problem? Any other suggestions or
also appreciated, thank you

-----Original Message-----
One thing to check is that in networking properties/advanced/advanced
settings the nic for the internal lan is at the top of the list. Browse list
problems can be a real headache. If you enable wins on your server and make
the server a client to itself and the other computers wins clients by adding
the wins server IP address to the DHCP scope, that may help as My Network
Places uses netbios name resolution. I would also disable netbios over
tcp/ip on ther internet adapter ONLY in tcp/ip properties advanced/wins.
Also look in Event Viewer for any errors that may provide a clue.

Having said that. If you are not using SBS ISA I would consider getting a
NAT/router firewall such as the Netgear ProSafe line and configure your
domain controller to have only one nic and then have all the computers point
to the router as their default gateway. Since you have a domain controller,
you might as well use it and join your W2K/XP Pro/W2003 computers to the
domain which can only improve performance and networking reliability. I
suggest that you also go into Domain Controller Security Policy of the
server and under security settings/local

policies/security options find the

 

[Steven L Umbach]

From what you describe I assume you have a NAT router since it is dishing out private
addresses. I would disable the DHCP on the router and use your server only to give
out DHCP addresses. You can reconfigure your router to have the lan side IP network
address to be the same as your domain and then enter it's IP address as the default
gateway for your server and all the other computers by adding it to the DHCP scope on
your server.

Since you are using NAT, your server needs only one nic. If you do not want to
physically remove one you can just disable it in networking properties. Assign the
server/domain controller a static IP address, configure it to point to that address
as it's preferred dns server and wins server and then configure your other computers
to point to it as their preferred dns sever through DHCP scope. I would run the
support tool netdiag on your domain controller when done to see if it reports a clean
bill of health with all tests passing. Then you should be able to join your computers
to the domain. Also remember to disable "server:digitally sign
communications(always)" as I suggested before. --- Steve

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;321708 --- netdiag and how
to install support tools.