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Utilizing two NIC's on W2K3 Server for VPN

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by gqstyles55

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Hi there everyone,

I was hoping someone could shed some light on a situation I've been running into. We've just installed a brand new 2003 server on our network and we have both NIC's enabled. We are trying to configure VPN to run through the server on the second network card and only have user workstations authenticate only to the first NIC. It seems that as soon as we try and setup VPN on the second NIC the local users start having problems logging in to the system. And when you ping the server name from a workstation it shows the second cards IP addres instead of the first one. Do they bridge or something. I can't seem to figure it out. I'm not sure if I have to edit the pointer record in DNS for the second card or what. I would really appreciate some help. Thanks.

10 replies

by bfilmfan

Are these network cards in a load balanced arrangement?

How are the cards configured?

by gqstyles55

This is an excellent question. I don't have much experience with dual network cards, so I suppose that is my first problem. We basically just enabled both cards and off we went. This could be our first problem. So to answer you question, I don't know.

by cg it

well if you stuck them in there and waaahaaa, then they aren't clustered.

Quick and dirty answer.

so your problem is both are probably on the same subnet.

So for your local network, one network card should have a static address and be plugged into a switch.

For the WAN network, the network card should be connected to a router which connects you to the internet and the addressing is the same subnet as the router.

There ya have it. The quick and dirty on Windows multi-homed server

by cg it

note: the network card that plugs into the switch can not be on the same subnet as the network card plugging into the router. Windows gets confused if they both are on the same subnet. BUT, you could bridge connections....

by curlergirl

First, a few simple things you may already have checked:

1. Both NICs must use static IP addressing.

2. On the internal NIC card, leave the default gateway blank. You don't need it on this NIC.

3. On the external NIC card, set the appropriate default gateway for connection to your external router or ISP.

4. Make sure that the TCP/IP settings on the external NIC card do NOT do dynamic DNS updating. This setting is on the NIC card properties, TCP/IP properties, Advanced/DNS tab. At the bottom is a checkbox labeled "Register this connection's addresses in DNS" - REMOVE the checkmark.

5. On your DNS server(s), check to make sure there is not DNS entry for the server showing the second (VPN) NIC card address. Make sure there IS one for the NIC card you want your workstations to use. If there is a DNS entry for the VPN NIC card, delete it.

This should do what you want, as far as I can tell from your description. Hope this helps!

by smashing

I'm working on a problem somewhat similar to this, 2 nic's, 2 networks, one of them is a vpn but both need internet access.

Our employees access our offsite web servers on one nic and another company's vpn from the second nic.

would setting the firewall on nic1 to block the vpn and the firewall on nic2 to only allow access to the vpn fix this?

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