DNS and Group Policy

[CVC]

We have only done this for a few networks in house and I am not sure if we are doing this right?

First of all we create a domain controller and use active directory on Windows 2003. However, to get the workstations to correctly connect and load the group policy we first have to go into the TCP/IP settings and manually point the DNS server to the server. Otherwise the computers don't get the group policy and they can't connect to the internet.

The problem with this is if the server goes down or the computer is a notebook that the user takes home they no longer have internet when not connected to the domain. Is this just how it is going to be?


*Note, this may have to do with it, I am not sure. We use a router for internet and as a DHCP server. Does this affect it?

[z1p]

You may want to set the Domain server as the DHCP server and set all the machines to obtain all their IP addresses through DHCP. The issue with that is if the domain server goes down you lose IP addresses. But, typically a domain server is up all the time.

Another option is to set the router up so that its DHCP server passes out the domain server as the DNS server. Again the down side is if the domain server goes down you lose DNS. However just going to the router and switching the DNS server would get people up and running.

Also depending on the router, you may be able to set your domain contoller as the primary DNS server and the ISPs as the secondary DNS server, then disable DNS relay or what ever your router calls it. Then the router should pass out the to DNS servers via DHCP.