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configure network for roaming users

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6 replies

by netwill

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I got several sales people getting laptops.

They roam around our 10 branch offices.

Each branch office has a BDC (with DHCP, WINS, DNS(secondary) and Corporate office has the PDC. They are all in the same domain.

What would be best way to setup DHCP(ie. renew interval...etc.), WINS(ie. replication..etc.)...etc for the roaming people?

6 replies

by phinaddict

Since it is all one domain it shouldn't really matter. When y our users dial up into the domain it will be just like they are in the office. We have a similar setup and renew our dhcp clients every 3 days and it seems to work really good. Since you said WINS I am assuming you have a WINS server. Do you have one or two? If you just have one you don't need to do anything since WINS is dynamic. If you have two I would set it up to force replication every hour just to avoid possible problems.
Good Luck!

by mckaytech

I disagree with the other answer offered because it sounds like your roaming users will be attaching to the LAN at each office rather than dialing in.

Here's my take on your situation. With a DHCP server on each LAN segment and assuming that your business is an 8-5 sort of thing, I would set the DHCP renewal at 24 hours although if you have plenty of IP addresses, you could use longer.

As far as the WINS servers, I assume there are a total of eleven. Just for the record, Microsoft's recommendation is one WINS server per 10,000 users plus one backup but my system has the same setup you do with WINS in each office. You probably want to have a hub-and-spoke topology with the hub at the PDC and making each of the branch offices a pushand pull replication partner with the PDC.

One thing that can be helpful in keeping the WINS database up to date is to schedule the inbound replication to occur just before the outbound replication. In other words, have the PDC pull it's replications before the BDC

by guy

The key to managing this situation is the DHCP SCOPE, set up each scope to give the DHCP clients the address of the LOCAL WINS, and DNS server. While your at it you can also give the DHCP clients the address of the Default gateway, and also the Domain name if you wish.

So what I recommend is to configure the DHCP Scope at each site. The options you need for WINS are Type 44 and Type 46 (set to H-node 0x8). For DNS use Type 6, Default Gateway Type 3.
When the Laptops boot up, they will automatically get an IP address from their LOCAL DHCP server, and so Automatically get the correct WINS server address.
In this situation, I assume that you have plenty of IP addresses, so the lease time could be at least 3 days.

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