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RAS: Users unable to see PDC

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11 replies

by serged

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Users, using a mixture of win 98 and win NT clients, log into the companies network using RAS. The RAS dial-up adapter is set to use TCP/IP with dynamic allocation of address, using DHCP. There are three PDC?s, A, B and C, with two-way trusts between them. The PDC in A runs the WINS and DHCP. RAS is running on both A and B. Basically, every so often uses logging into domain B, using RAS, are no longer able to access resources on B, because their clients can not see the PDC.
TCP/IP seems tobe working since the clients machines are able to ping the network using TCP/IP addresses and host names. However when pinging the PDC ?B? using the host name , the message ?unknown host appears?. The clients only get a response from the the PDC ?B? if the TCP/IP address is used in the pinging.
The problem does not seem to be the clients, because changing the workgroup\domain on the client to A and logging into PDC ?A? is fine.
The only way to resolve the problems is to reboot PDC B. But this is not practical, since most of the RAS users log in outside office hours.
Has anyone come across a problem like this before

11 replies

by gutridgesj

we had a lot of problems with RAS and remote pc not seeing things on the network. we read a ms article and added an lmhosts file to all the remote machines putting the servers in there and all seems to be ok now for those particular servers. stilldo not understand why some servers are "Seen" and others not, but when the lmhosts file is updated, it seems to fix it.

by nettek

Because you are sometimes able to ping by IP address and not by name suggests that you are having a WINs resolution problem. You can use LMHOST files, but I would try the following first:
1. If you are using DHCP, make sure you have configured the DHCP scope to provide WINs addresses.
2. Be aware that using DHCP to provide your RAS clients with the WINs server settings is sometimes unreliable. You may have to go as far as manually inputting the WINs server IP address in the DUN settings of your clients.
3. Your WINs server should not be multihomed (two NICs in one server, each connected to a different network).
4. Verify that you selected the "Allow RAS clients to access entire network" option on the NT RAS server if you want the clients to be able to see other network resources other than the RAS server.

by shmaltz

I agree with answer 1 and 2.
Thru my experience it never worked either way (to give the wins address in the dhcp scope and to enter it in the dun settings). The only other ways I was able to get it to work was:
1. LMHOST files
2. Install NETBeui on the remote machines and on the machines the remote computers will connect to.
3. Use a win2k computer for ras instead of winnt 4.0.
One more thing that I have seen when you gave the clients IP address from the DHCP server instead of a static pool was that the DHCP server whould not release the IP address given to the remote computer when the remote user loged off.

by msgtray

I can only speculate as to the cause of your problem but I concur with the other answers that it appears to be a "Name resolution" problem. Because you can clear the problem with a reboot, I might take a look at the routing tables. Perhaps you mightadd a static persistent route between the RAS and WINS servers. From the command prompt type "route print" to see current table. Type "route" for help on commands.

This does not answer what is happening, but it may resolve the symptoms.

Ray

by kaisersose

As the above persons have said Lmhosts configuration is the way to go here for a surefire soln. I've tried everything including giving static IP addresses and Wins settings to the RAS clients. These seem to work but still give trouble. This is ultimatly a WINS problem and other than going with Win2K - lmhosts is the way to go.

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