Preferred DNS Server: 192.168.1.1
Alternate DNS Server: left blank

When the wizard was completed it automatically reassigned the Server’s Primary DNS to 192.168.1.10 and added a FORWARDER in the DNS database which points to my router which is 192.168.1.1
— NO YOU misconfigured the wizard.

—– The wizard, if properly ran will enter the FORWARDER to a DNS server and NOT YOUR ROUTER – this would be OpenDNS or your ISP DNS.

II would at this point say you have some sort of DNS corruption and if you are willing to talk on the phone I would be happy to work with you on this.

I will answer your question by phone if you would like, email me direct at dwiebesick at netrixit dot com

and i will walk you through the steps or if you want, setup a remote session and show you what you need to do.

Then you can post back to this site what we did so others can understand the solution.

I turned off DHCP on my Netgear Broadband Router. The Router is using my ISP (Optimum Online) Dynamic DNS. The Routers IP Address is 192.168.1.1 therefore the Default Gateway Statically set on my server is 192.168.1.1

I initially set a Static Primary DNS on my server to 192.168.1.1 so that my server could go on the internet. So the final setings on my Server looked like this.

IP Address: 192.168.1.10
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway: 192.168.1.1

Preferred DNS Server: 192.168.1.1
Alternate DNS Server: left blank

At this point Windows SBS 2003 has a wizard to connect to e-mail and internet. Running the wizard I made sure that default gateway was set for 192.168.1.1 which was already prefilled during the processing and that primary DNS for clients would be 192.168.1.10 which is the DHCP Server address.

When the wizard was completed it automatically reassigned the Server’s Primary DNS to 192.168.1.10 and added a FORWARDER in the DNS database which points to my router which is 192.168.1.1

So now the final configuration of the Server using only one NIC is

IP Address: 192.168.1.10
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway: 192.168.1.1

Preferred DNS Server: 192.168.1.10
Alternate DNS Server: left blank

with a FORWARDER in DNS to send any requests via port 80 to the router 192.168.1.1

I was able to add clients to the domain and see the computers registered in AD, DHCP, DNS, and WINS on the server. With all said and done it works the way it should.

I would at this point say you have some sort of DNS corruption and if you are willing to talk on the phone I would be happy to work with you on this.

pcjunky@optonline.net

Send me your work email address and we can try to work through this faster.

NIC #2 is disabled with nothing connected to it.

Here is some additional information that I should have shared earlier but I had basically forgotten about this because I do almost all of the support in the building where the server is housed. The other building is connected via fiber optic cable and has its own stack of switches. It has two routers in different parts of the building that are used for wireless access. Is it possible that the configuration on one of both of these routers could be the problem? What should it be as far as the IP etc on them? I do not know if someone possible reset them at some point causing them to revert back to their default IP address. They are both Netgear routers.

So here is what I am pretty sure is the setup –

Remember, this network was installed nearly ten years ago and no one who was involved is around any more and there doesn’t seem to be any information left behind to draw from.

Comcast is the service provider. Their cable come into our server room in the middle school building and connects to the cable modem, which connects to the linksys router. The router is connected to a switch and then an Ethernet cable runs from the switch to the server.The linksys router is used for wireless access only. All client computers are cabled to ports in the wall in the labe and in the classrooms. There is an Actiontec router in the 6th grade classroom that is being used to extend the wireless network. Somewhere along the line fiber optic cable runs from the switch to the Primary School building. In the 2nd grade classroom you will find a netgear router that is connected to one of the ports in the wall. This is to be used mainly for wireless access in this part of the Primary Building but there is one client computer connected to it. All other client computers and printers are cabled directly to ports in the wall. In the comouter lab at the other end of the building there is another netgear router cabled to the wall with no clients connected. It is used strictly for wireless access in this part of the building.
We get wireless access to the network via the linksys and Actiontec routers in the Middle Building but from neither of the netgear routers in the Primary Building. This is leading me to believe that someone, somewhere along the line has messed with these routers and possibly reset them. I know that last year when this network was fully functional the IP address of the router in the 2nd grade classroom was something like 10.0.0.1. I do not know what it was on the other netgear router.

Sending an IPCONFIG /ALL of the server as well as one from a client PC would be helpful. If you are relying on your Linksys Router as a firewall between you internal and external networks I would have to say to configure your server properly it would require 2 NICS. Dwiebesick what is your comment on this?

When you set your clients to obtain an IP automatically and DNS automatically, you need to varify that the results are correct. The ipconfig/all will help determine the problem.

Also, you should try and ensure you can ping both the server by IP and NAME, ping your gateway (router) by IP. To ensure you have connection to the out side world from a workstation, you can ping IP 4.2.2.2 and a ping to yahoo.com would check proper name resolution (DNS).

Send back ipconfig/all report and we will take a look at it.