Windows Server

Kevin D. Goodknecht Sr. [ · Guest

Rich Roller <rich@*REMOVE-THIS*r2c.com> wrote:

Rich Roller · Guest

Kevin,

Thanks for checking back.

Actually, I already implemented what you're suggesting on the customer's
network many days ago. Perhaps I didn't make that clear enough earlier in
this thread. Here is the recent setup...

ROUTER (10.11.0.1):
- TCPIP->DNS points statically to ISP only! (Verizon 151.202.0.85,
151.203.0.85)
- DHCP SRVR is now OFF! (DC is now doing that)

DC (10.11.0.21):
- DHCP SRVR is now ON
- DHCP SRVR gives out to client PC's only one DNS server! (itself
10.11.0.21)
- DNS SRVR forwarders: only one! (router/gateway 10.11.0.1)
- TCPIP->DNS points to only one DNS server! (itself 10.11.0.21)
- TCPIP->WINS points to only one WINS server! (itself 10.11.0.21)

After implementing this, there were still big problems. Yesterday was a
disaster. The only trick we have is to reboot the router when things get
bad and that just buys you a short time until it comes back.

Ironically today has been relatively good... no reboots required yet! But I
am sure it will come back. I can't figure out any pattern or cause except
for suspecting the router not being able to handle a certain type of
traffic. So I'm swapping routers tomorrow (Netgear FVS318 -> Sonicwall TZ
170).

If that doesn't fix it, the other thing I'm wondering about is the legacy NT
server/domain which is running WINS (non-replicated) and a TRUST
relationship to AD. Can't see why they should cause problems but who
knows... the whole thing is mysterious.

-Rich

"Kevin D. Goodknecht Sr. [MVP]" <admin@nospam.WFTX.US> wrote in message
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Rich Roller · Guest

Kevin,

No, the event logs generally are in good shape. But frankly I'll have to
double check them for recent events.

I assume that the configuration I detailed below is exactly what you'd
advise, because that's what I plan to stick with.

I'm swapping routers later today so I should know by Monday or so if the old
router was the problem.

The really weird thing is that the old router was very happy today... never
needed a reboot. Bizarre.

It's now got me thinking maybe there is some PC which is generating traffic
that the router can't handle. And this type of traffic is intermittent. I
have not had the time/budget on this project to do a full-blown netmon.

If the new router doesn't resolve the issue, then I'll certainly going back
to the drawing board for new ideas!

-Rich

p.s. The fault-tolerance issue is unfortunately off the radar for now, if
not forever. :-(

"Kevin D. Goodknecht Sr. [MVP]" <admin@nospam.WFTX.US> wrote in message
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Rich Roller · Guest

I have some very interesting updates!... and a follow-up question at the
end...

1. After installing Sonicwall yesterday, which had better logging/reporting
capabilities, I could see that one laptop seemed to be degrading the
Internet connection speed for everyone.

I have yet to figure out what specifically is running on that laptop to
cause this. So far all I have is a bunch of TCP ports that it's using, most
of which are non-std, non-published, and they seem to mutate. Pinning this
down will be my next step.

2. Equally interesting, I finally isolated the cause of DNS latency. (recall
that my ping requests would always be very slow on the first response, and
sometimes fail to do name resolution at all... same thing happened often in
IE on first time queries)

I moved away from Kevin's prior recommendation to have the Windows DNS
Server have only one forwarder, my router (10.11.0.1). I removed 10.11.0.1
and replaced it with the 2 ISP DNS servers (Verizon 151.202.0.85 &
151.203.0.85).

Immediately I saw dramatic improvement. The pings now resolve the first
time instantly... the way they should!

I then double-confirmed that the problem is when you point DNS to the router
(10.11.0.1). I used another server to do static DNS pointing to 10.11.0.1
and then DNS basically wouldn't resolve at all.

So, I'm left wondering about what is the best practice for setting up
Windows DNS Server forwarders? Originally I had setup 2 ISP forwarders, but
then was advised to change to just 1 local router forwarder. I had bad
results with the latter and would just like to know what if any concerns
there are about doing the former? (pointing to external ISP as forwarders)

-Rich

"Rich Roller" <rich@*REMOVE-THIS*r2c.com> wrote in message
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Ace Fekay [MVP] · Guest

In news:%23W0it%2383FHA.3292@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl,
Rich Roller <rich@*REMOVE-THIS*r2c.com> made this post, which I then
commented about below:

Ian_m · Joined: 15 Nov 2005 Posts: 2

Actually we have a similar situation, Internet access is of first priority, Server2003 access is secondary. We must have Internet access (E-mail, ASP apps and VPN endpoints) regardless of what server is doing.

We have a Vigor 2900 router (on 192.168.0.1) acting as DHCP server handing out addresses (192.168.0.10 and above). It hands out DNS entries to clients of 192.168.0.2 (our server), secondary of 192.168.0.1 (router) and gateway of 192.168.0.1 (router).

The server is at 192.168.0.2 with its network card DNS pointing to 192.168.0.2. There is one DNS forwarder to 192.168.0.1 (router).

The setup works fine, server has Internet access, clients all have Internet access, everybody is happy. Server goes down, people can't access files etc, but Internet and VPN all still active and people 1/2 happy.

Note that not all routers are as configurable as the Vigor, especially in the flexibility of its LAN side configuration allowing you to specify DHCP DNS entries, non-router gateway addresses etc.

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