Domain issue

navneet_78 · ‎02-01-2009

Hi ,

I have a site with around 100 users. There are total 3 Vlans for each of the floors. Users on one floor are not able to access the PCs of other users (on different floors) using the hostnames. But they can do this with IP address.

Initially this site had a single /22 block. And all users were able to access each other's PCs with hostnames. This does not seem to work in the current scenario with 3 Vlans of /24 each.

Isn;t NetBeui the protocol which would be used for local hostname resolution. Also, since this is not a routed protocol, how will my current scenario work?

Appreciate if someone could help me out.

Cheers

Navneet

paolo bevilacqua · ‎02-01-2009

Hi, it mainly depends how your MS networking is setup. That is, if you loging to the network, have a PDC (Primary Domain Controller), etc.

When done properly, that makes name resolution work automatically.

If you don't have a proper config, try setting windns entry in dhcp to some server. If neither that helps, you will probably need udp helper.

navneet_78 · ‎02-01-2009

Thanks for your reply!!

We dnt have much of a configuration from the user end. There are policies defined in the DHCP scope, and IP helpers on the Data VLan for users to get IPs.

Does the name resolution process try and contact the DNS servers which are located in a diff location (in my scenario), or it does it locally, and WAN does not come into picture?

Cheers

Navneet

paolo bevilacqua · ‎02-01-2009

If the wins settings in dhcp scope are ok, try the following: replace ip helper address currently to DHCP server with same LAN direct broadcast: eg 10.10.10.255 for a /24. Also add a 2nd helper for the other VLAN, so you have 2 for each of the 3 interfaces.

This will actually cause all netbios broadcast to be flood, but it will not be otherwise harmful.

The way windows (netbios) name resolution works, is that in "proper networking" the station knows its servers address (dhcp/static settings, domain logon, or hosts file). If the PC doesn't have that, it recurs to broadcast. So when you have a WAN or otherwise subnetted environment, you must take the above in consideration.

navneet_78 · ‎02-01-2009

Thanks for your response!! It really helps clear a lot of things.

Cheers

Navneet

paolo bevilacqua · ‎02-02-2009

You are welcome. Please remember to rate useful posts with the scrollbox below.

Mohamed Sobair · ‎02-02-2009

IF they are able to communicate using their IP Addresses , then there is no routing problems.

To access the PCs using their Hostnames, you will require (LDAP) protocol (Internal DNS server) for hosname resolution.

HTH

Mohamed