Getting WINS-like computer name resolution over VPN in SBS 2008
So this week concluded several sleepless nights and much heartburn as I migrated Skiviez’s SBS 2003 machine (running as our domain controller and our mail server) to SBS 2008. As far as things go, it went relatively smoothly, and the remainder of the week was dealing with lots of small niceties that I had forgotten that I had set up on the 2003 server that I now needed to set up once again.
One of these was something that I used for my convenience over a VPN connection from home. You see, the internal order processing application that I wrote uses some shared folders to store some temporary data, such as e-mails that are generated but not yet released to Exchange, or a local copy of images that are available on the Web site. This software–and our users–are used to referring to Windows file shares as \\COMPUTER-NAME\SHARE-NAME; for example, \\CYRUS\Pickup Holding, because for some reason some of the older servers are named after my boss’s dead cats.
When connecting through VPN to SBS 2008, however, that “suffix-less” name resolution was not working. So when \\CYRUS\Pickup Holding failed to resolve to anything, \\cyrus.skiviez.com\Pickup Holding would work fine. This was super annoying.
The reason this worked previously with our SBS 2003 installation is that it was acting as a WINS server, which provided this type of computer name resolution for us. SBS 2008 finally retires this ancient technology by default, however, so I had two choices: I could either install the WINS server role on SBS 2008, or I could just figure out how to get the 015 DNS Domain Name option from DHCP to relay through the VPN connection.
I chose the latter option, since it’s certainly less confusing to be able to say to someone in the future “we don’t use WINS, DNS does everything.” So here’s how to do it:
- On the SBS 2008 server, click Start > Administrative Tools > Routing and Remote Access.
- In the tree view, drill down past the server name to IPV4 > General. Right-click the General option and choose “New Routing Protocol” and choose DHCP Relay Agent.
- Now right-click the newly appended “DHCP Relay Agent” node and choose Properties. Add the IP address of your DHCP server (which is probably your SBS server itself), and click OK. Then click it again and choose “New Interface” and add the “Internal” interface.
- Now if you connect through VPN, an
ipconfig /allshould show your domain name as a “Connection-specific DNS suffix” and pinging machines by their suffix-less computer names should work. (If it doesn’t, make sure your DHCP server is using that015 DNS Domain Nameoption, which the SBS 2008 wizards set up by default.)
Happy file sharing!
PingBack from
http://sbits.blogspot.com/2009/08/how-to-get-wins-to-work-with-sbs2008.html
Thanks a lot for that solution. Works great.
Thanks for a really simple solution to a huge problem with users connecting remotely. Without proper name resolution it is impossible for people to connect and access their files.
Awesome!
THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
I appreciate this since banging my head on this for a bit!
You are a god for sure. 2 weeks trying to figure this out THANKS :)
Hi Nicholas,
I’ve just implemented VPN on my SBS 2008 server. Everything seems to work
fine as far as connecting. Connection from home is also fast and stable. I
was pointed to this site as a suggestion to my issues which appears this may be the fix.
1. From a VPN connection I cannot access any server and share using the run
command \\servername\sharename. What I can do from a run command is
\\servername.domain.local\sharename.
So now that I still have the same issue I am unclear about this comment to fis it.
“If it doesn’t, make sure your DHCP server is using that 015 DNS Domain Name option, which the SBS 2008 wizards set up by default.”
Where do I go to check and verify this. Thanks in advance.
Allen
@AllenM
Look in Administrative Tools > DHCP. In the tree view, drill down to DHCP > [your server] > IPv4 > Scope [your scope] > Scope Options. Make sure the option is in that list. If not, right-click > Configure Options and add it.
Our AD domain ends in .com, not .local. I’m not sure if ending in .local would make it not resolve for some reason, so that might be something to check out, too. Good luck!
Thank You for the solution !!!
I’ve a situation that is causing me quite a headache at the moment that would probably profit from your knowledge.
I’ll try and keep this as simple as possible so that it’s clear.
My aim is to establish a VPN between two DC on different sites that allows clients from each of the sites to access machines and resources from both sites.
Here’s the topology :
Two sites.
Site 1: SBS 2008 (sugarA) as DC1 for the domain sugar.local
Site 2: Win 2008 Standard (sugarB) as DC2 – same domain
SBS is configured to allow Site 2 to connect via VPN
sugarB connects to sugarA and can find client machines on Site1
sugar can not see the clients on Site2
Could you tell me what I’m doing wrong ?
.. or what I may have forgotten (keep it basic for the moment please)
Perfect. Thank you
AWESOME!!!!!
I’ve been searching the internet for hours trying to find a solution.
I finally came across this page.
Works Perfect.
THANKS a million times over
Top man! job done ….
Nice work. Much neater than installing WINS.
I still cannot get this to work, ipconfig show the correct dns suffix.