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windows 2000 and routers

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by pagc

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My client has workstations with win2k prof. and a win2k server with this they have micronet IP Router SP866 to access the internet. The configuration of the TCP/IP protocol of each workstation, I put the IP address of the router for the gateway and for the DNS, the IP address of the internet service provider. It works fine when they need to enter the internet but the router is always connecting to the internet spending a phone call out need, each time a computer is turned on or when accessing other stations in the network. Where am I doing it wrong? Is there a configuration that I have missed? Please do help me, it is most urgent!

16 replies

by isys

Go to each computer, in Control Panel, Internet Options, Connections, check "Never Dial a Connection".

by pan 13 x

there is no solution unless you change the way they are connecting to the internet. You may try with one computer , changing the default gateway to a fileserver and leave the file server the gateway of the router.

by snowmaninhi

Why does the router dial the internet every time you start a computer? A simple DNS query will cause the router to dial the internet. Since you have set the DNS entry to your ISP, it attempts to contact your ISP for that information. You could setup the server to have DNS loaded, and point the DNS to your server. If the entries that are being looked up are in the cache, the internet will not be dialed. Remember that Win2k is heavily dependant on DNS.

by ustutz

Basically the reason you are dialing out everytime you boot is: When you boot a workstation, it has to establish connectivity to its name services. This is time, for example, when it picks the primary and secondary DNS (and WINS) servers - based on their responses.

The way around dialing out on every reboot is to set up a local DNS server on your site. Two options there - and I am shooting outside my lane on one:

1. Set up DNS on one of your own servers. Configure it to forward any unresolved querries tot he ISP DNS. (I doubt the ISP will let you set up a secondary server to their DNS, but they might - that would be even better).

2. Set up the router as a DNS forwarder (similar to how it might be set up as a BOOTP relay??). That way the router becomes the primary (and secondary) DNS server. It won't dial out just for a response check at boot time. But it would dial out for honest DNS queries. This is the one I am shooting outside my lane: I don't know what the capabilities of your router are, and how that would be configured.

by curlergirl

Is your Win2K server running DNS? If not, it should be. You should have your workstations pointing to the internal server for DNS. You can then set up your internal server to use the ISP's DNS server(s) as forwarders. This will improve your nameresolution speed and should also limit the dial-ups to times when the Win2K server actually has to reach the ISP's DNS servers to resolve a name. Hope this helps!

by snowmaninhi

This is wierd, I wrote an answer, saw it posted and came back and it was gone.. So if this gets duplicated, please excuse...

Anyway, What you are seeing is that Windows 2000 is trying to resolve a DNS entry and it is attempting to contact the DNS server. You have configured your DNS server as the ISP DNS server, so it attempts to check the name with the DNS server, fails, then goes to WINS to check it.

You can try the following: Setup DNS services on the Win2k server as a Caching server, set your workstation to look at the Win2k server for DNS. This should prevent some of the dialing of the internet for "no reason" though it will still initiate a call when you NEED to resolve a DNS entry that is outside of your office, but by definition then you will be using the internet. Once everything is in cache, you shouldn't have too much of a problem with auto-dials.

by snowmaninhi

Remember that NT4 looked at WINS first, and as I understand W2k looks at DNS first to resolve machine names.

by jeremy the it guy

Your problem, if I understood you correctly, is in your configuration. You should have the IP of the router as the DNS and the gateway. It should only be the gateway and the DNS IP should be an IP address assigned by your ISP or Domain Host. Whatis happening is when people connect to other machine or to the network, it send a signal outside due to this misconfiguration. Hope this helps, Jeremy

by jeremy the it guy

The reason this is occurring is because you have the DNS IP the same as the Gateway IP. You should have the IP of the router as the gateway IP and the DNS IP is an IP given to you by your ISP. Get the DNS IP from your service provider and you willnot have this problem anymore. Thanks, Jeremy

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