Another problem accessing companyweb

We installed our first server a few months ago and are running Winsows Small Business Server. We have 6 client PCs, all running Windows XP Pro SP2.

My problem is with the Sharepoint Services portal "companyweb ". 5 out of 6 clients are able to access this feature, but the sixth (my PC) can't, at least not directly. I can get there by going through the "Remote Web Workplace" and then accessing it as though I was out of the office.

I saw a recent thread about companyweb, and thought that maybe it would solve my problem too, but the other thread that this one was referrred to didn't seem to help me, or I didn't understand enough to "get it ".

I'm not sure what all of the relevant information will be here but, the clients all have static IP addresses. DHCP is enabled on our router, which also handles NAT. Client computers are configured with the server's address for preferred DNS. No secondary DNS server is provided.

I have been playing around with these settings off-and-on whenever I have had time for the past few months, but gotten nowhere. The really puzzling part is that I can't see anything different in the configuration of this machine compared to the other 5.

Tom

 

Can you post a ipconfig /all output for the problem PC? Also try:

nslookup address_of_companywebsite

Where address_of_companywebsite is replaced with the address of the company website. What response do you get to the nslookup. Is it the same on the PCs that work and those that don't?

 

Here are the results from ipconfig and nslookup on the problem PC and its twin.

From the problem PC:

From the twin PC:

I can see that there is a problem here, but I don't know where to look to fix it.

 

It looks like your DNS service is not correctly configured on your server (192.168.1.2). Even the PC that is able to resolve the address is showing errors on the NSLOOKUP.

Have a look at these Microsoft articles to see if they give you a clue as to what you may have missed in setting up DNS:

http://technet2.microsoft.com/Windo...6124-4c3a-87ef-865443d7ea4b1033.mspx?mfr=true

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/291382

http://technet2.microsoft.com/Windo...16ab-4e7d-a333-15befb15c82e1033.mspx?mfr=true

With Windows servers since Windows 2000, DNS works best when integrated with DHCP. This may not fix your problem, but is something worth considering whilst configuring the DNS service.

http://technet2.microsoft.com/Windo...c368-46c2-b017-caf25ae150ec1033.mspx?mfr=true

 

I went into the DNS settings on the server to see what I could see. I found that there was no Host (A) record for the problem PC, so I created one.

However in doing that I got a warning: The associated pointer (PTR)record cannot be created, probably because the referenced lookup zone cannot be found.

When I looked at the reverse lookup zone I noticed that its address is 192.168.7.2, while the server is 192.168.1.2. Should these addresses match, or is this okay the way it is? If this is configured incorrectly, where do I change it?

Also, DHCP does not appear in the server management tree. I think I remember some discussion with the IT consultant about letting the router handle DHCP when we were setting things up. Might this be something that has not been installed (or made active) due to a setup decision?

 

Yes the addresses should match.

What is the reverse lookup zone name? It should be something like 1.168.192.in-addr.arpa. It sounds like the reverse lookup zone isn't set up correctly. Have a look at this article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/174419/

Consultant!!! Discussing setting up DHCP on the router when you have a 2003 server.

DHCP will only appear in the management tree if the service is installed. It is fairly clear that the service is not installed on your server. You don't have to use DHCP, but if you have more than 3 or 4 computers, you'll find that DHCP makes managing the network a lot easier.

If you decide to start using DHCP, install it on server rather that enable the service on the router. Two reasons: first you get quite a few more options and sophistication with the DHCP service on the server; and second DHCP will automatically talk to DNS and dynamically create the host records for you when you add a PC.