Need to fix DNS name resultion issue

theshadow1000 · 22nd April 2008

I just discovered that I have a DNS name resolution issue on my
network. When using remote desktop, I cannot connect via the remote
client’s computer name, I can only connect via IP address. Which lead
me to believe that it’s a DNS name resolution issue, the problem is
that I have no clue on how to fix it.

I am running Windows Sever 2003 SP3 with active directory and DNS.

**ReggieB** · 22nd April 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by theshadow1000

I cannot connect via the remote
client’s computer name.

When you say "client’s computer name", do you mean its NetBIOS name (e.g. computer1) or its DNS name (e.g. computer1.company.local).

Altering DNS may well not help if you are trying to connect via a NetBIOS name.

In my experience, DNS names work well remotely, but NetBIOS names can be problematic.

mflynn · 22nd April 2008

10-4 to what Reggie said.

If you want you can get us the following info.

An ipconfig /all "from the sevrer itself"

From a local workstation on the LAN:
Pathping server name
Pathping server ip

Then from outside in, from one of your remotes:
Pathping server wan ip

Mike

theshadow1000 · 22nd April 2008

Hi everyone,

I've tried both the NetBIOS name and the DNS name and neither of them work.

Here is the cmd from the server

Here is the cmd from a client

**ReggieB** · 22nd April 2008

A couple of points I would make from the IPCONFIG outputs:

DNS should point at the 2003 server and only the 2003 server. It appears that you currently have a secondary DNS server (your ISP's DNS server?) set. Use DNS forwarders to get your server's DNS talking to internet DNS servers.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/814591

The domain name being used is an internet DNS. This may be causing problems unless your server is also the internet authority for your domain - which is unusual. Removing the second DNS entry may resolve problem caused by this as it will force your internal system to rely on the 2003 server as the authority as for domain name space. Personally, I would avoid this problem by using a .local domain within a LAN. Keep your internet name space for the internet. You're better off with a unique internal name space for your local network.

Remove the secondary DNS server entries and see if that helps. If that does fix the problem, do an NSLOOKUP to the server and see what you get:

Code:

nslookup covenant-rbywmu.ad.covschool.com

You client appears to be a VMware virtual machine. I don't think this will cause the problem, but it might be useful if you could confirm this.

**ReggieB** · 22nd April 2008

I think there is also an issue with the length of host names with NetBIOS. I think the computer name "covenant-rbywmu" is long and contains a special (non-alphabetical) character. This may be causing the problem with NetBIOS.

mflynn · 23rd April 2008

Reg I like it when you talk like that!

I agree 100%!!

Shadow a little more insight to this issue for us would be.

From a LAN station
cmd prompt

pathping servername
pathping serverip

From outside (your remote)

pathping wan ip of server

Mike

PS you do not need screen captures, use: ipconfig /all >ipcfg.out or pathping server >patpsvr.txt then open these files and paste the results back to us.

theshadow1000 · 23rd April 2008

Hi everyone, thanks to all of you for all of your help!

nslookup from the server:

Server: UnKnown
Address: 192.168.1.174

Name: covenant-rbtwmu.ad.covschool.com.covschool.com
Address: 209.62.21.228

nslookup from a vmware virtual machine

Server: dns1.sndgca.sbcglobal.net
Address: 206.13.30.12

Name: covenant-rbtwmu.ad.covschool.com.ad.covschool.com
Address: 209.62.21.228

traceroute from a vmware virtual machine

Tracing route to 192.168.1.174 over a maximum of 30 hops

0 vmware-xp.ad.covschool.com [192.168.1.218]

1 192.168.1.1

2 192.168.1.174

Computing statistics for 50 seconds...

Source to Here This Node/Link

Hop RTT Lost/Sent = Pct Lost/Sent = Pct Address

0 vmware-xp.ad.covschool.com [192.168.1.218]

1/ 100 = 1% |

1 4ms 16/ 100 = 16% 15/ 100 = 15% 192.168.1.1

0/ 100 = 0% |

2 3ms 1/ 100 = 1% 0/ 100 = 0% 192.168.1.174

Trace complete.

traceroute from the server

Tracing route to covenant-rbtwmu.ad.covschool.com [209.62.21.228]

over a maximum of 30 hops:

0 vmware-xp.ad.covschool.com [192.168.1.218]

1 192.168.1.1

2 adsl-66-125-193-81.dsl.lsan03.pacbell.net [66.125.193.81]

3 dist3-vlan50.irvnca.sbcglobal.net [67.114.50.1]

4 bb1-g4-0.irvnca.sbcglobal.net [151.164.43.141]

5 ex2-p14-0.eqlaca.sbcglobal.net [151.164.191.75]

6 bpr2-ge-2-1-0.LosAngelesEquinix.savvis.net [151.164.248.214]

7 cr2-pos-0-0-3-0.lay.savvis.net [204.70.203.50]

8 cr2-tengige0-7-5-0.dallas.savvis.net [204.70.196.29]

9 208.172.139.134

10 gphou2-209-85-0-113.ev1servers.net [209.85.0.113]

11 ev1s-209-62-21-228.ev1servers.net [209.62.21.228]

Computing statistics for 275 seconds...

Source to Here This Node/Link

Hop RTT Lost/Sent = Pct Lost/Sent = Pct Address

0 vmware-xp.ad.covschool.com [192.168.1.218]

7/ 100 = 7% |

1 5ms 7/ 100 = 7% 0/ 100 = 0% 192.168.1.1

1/ 100 = 1% |

2 32ms 8/ 100 = 8% 0/ 100 = 0% adsl-66-125-193-81.dsl.lsan03.pacbell.net [66.125.193.81]

0/ 100 = 0% |

3 --- 100/ 100 =100% 92/ 100 = 92% dist3-vlan50.irvnca.sbcglobal.net [67.114.50.1]

0/ 100 = 0% |

4 --- 100/ 100 =100% 92/ 100 = 92% bb1-g4-0.irvnca.sbcglobal.net [151.164.43.141]

0/ 100 = 0% |

5 --- 100/ 100 =100% 92/ 100 = 92% ex2-p14-0.eqlaca.sbcglobal.net [151.164.191.75]

0/ 100 = 0% |

6 36ms 8/ 100 = 8% 0/ 100 = 0% bpr2-ge-2-1-0.LosAngelesEquinix.savvis.net [151.164.248.214]

1/ 100 = 1% |

7 124ms 11/ 100 = 11% 2/ 100 = 2% cr2-pos-0-0-3-0.lay.savvis.net [204.70.203.50]

0/ 100 = 0% |

8 150ms 10/ 100 = 10% 1/ 100 = 1% cr2-tengige0-7-5-0.dallas.savvis.net [204.70.196.29]

0/ 100 = 0% |

9 --- 100/ 100 =100% 91/ 100 = 91% 208.172.139.134

0/ 100 = 0% |

10 79ms 12/ 100 = 12% 3/ 100 = 3% gphou2-209-85-0-113.ev1servers.net [209.85.0.113]

0/ 100 = 0% |

11 78ms 9/ 100 = 9% 0/ 100 = 0% ev1s-209-62-21-228.ev1servers.net [209.62.21.228]

Trace complete.

**ReggieB** · 23rd April 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by theshadow1000

nslookup from the server:

Server: UnKnown
Address: 192.168.1.174

Name: covenant-rbtwmu.ad.covschool.com.covschool.com
Address: 209.62.21.228

nslookup from a vmware virtual machine

Server: dns1.sndgca.sbcglobal.net
Address: 206.13.30.12

Name: covenant-rbtwmu.ad.covschool.com.ad.covschool.com
Address: 209.62.21.228

Well, there are your problems:

DNS lookup for internal systems from the client are going outside your network. All your nslookup reponses should be coming from 192.168.1.174.
The IP addresses that are returned from those lookups are returning external IP addresses rather than the actual internal addresses
The returned DNS names are confused with repetitions of the domain name.

Your DNS set up is the problem. You need to get your server set up correctly.

I recommend that your separate you internal DNS address space from your external DNS address space. How best to do that depends on your network set up. Is this a new setup? How many client system do you have? Do you need to provide external access to internal clients?