Lesson 3: Configuring a DNS Client

If a computer on your network is running Windows 2000 Server and has the DNS Service installed and configured on it, you need to know how to configure your computer that is running Windows 2000 Professional as a DNS client. In this lesson, you will learn how to configure DNS clients.

After this lesson, you will be able to

Configure a DNS client.

Estimated lesson time: 10 minutes

Since DNS is a distributed database that is used in TCP/IP networks to translate computer names to IP addresses, you must first install TCP/IP on a client running Windows 2000 Professional before configuring the client to use the DNS Service. Once you have installed TCP/IP on your client, use the Network And Dial-Up Connections window to access the Properties dialog box for your client's TCP/IP to configure it to use DNS.

If you are configuring a local area connection in the Network And Dial-Up Connections window, right-click Local Area Connection, and click Properties. On the General tab, click TCP/IP and then click Properties (see Figure 8.6). For all other types of connections, on the Networking tab in the connection's Properties dialog box, click TCP/IP and then click Properties.

Figure 8.6 The Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) Properties dialog box

You must select one of the two following options:

Obtain DNS Server Address Automatically. If you select this option, you must have a DHCP Server available on your network to provide the IP address of a DNS Server. For more information on DHCP, see Appendix C, "Understanding the DHCP Service."

Use The Following DNS Server Addresses. If you select this option, you must type in the IP addresses of the DNS Servers you want this client to use.

Preconfiguration Considerations

If your client is connected to a network that has a DNS server, you can check the following options on the server that has the DNS service installed:

Ensure a static IP address has been assigned to the DNS server.

Ensure the appropriate IP address of the DNS server and DNS domain name are assigned. Click Advanced in the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) Properties dialog box to configure the advanced TCP/IP settings. On the DNS tab, check the assigned DNS address and domain name.

Practice: Configuring a DNS Client

After completing this practice, you will be able to configure your computers
running Windows 2000 Professional as DNS clients.

To configure a client to use the DNS Service

Right-click My Network Places, and then click Properties.

Right-click Local Area Connection, and then click Properties.

Select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), and then click Properties.

In the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) Properties dialog box, select Use The Following DNS Server Addresses.

In the Preferred DNS Server box, type the IP address of the primary name server for this client.

NOTEIf you are on a network, ask your network administrator for the IP
address of a DNS server you can use and type that address in the Preferred DNS Server box. If you aren't on a network or if you do not have a DNS Server on your network, you can type 192.168.1.203 as the Preferred DNS Server IP address.

If a second name server is available for this client, in the Alternate DNS Server box, type the IP address of the second name server for this client.

NOTEIf you are on a network, ask your network administrator for the IP
address of a second DNS server you can use and type that address in the
Alternate DNS Server box. If you are not on a network or if you don't have
a DNS Server on your network, you can type 192.168.1.205 as the Alternate DNS Server IP address.

A client will attempt to send its query requests to the preferred name server. If that name server isn't responding, the client will send the query request to the alternate name server.

TIP
If you're going to configure several computers running Windows 2000 Professional as DNS clients, configure some of the clients to use the alternate name server as the preferred name server. This reduces the load on the primary server.

Click OK to close the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) Properties dialog box.

Click OK to close the Local Connection Properties dialog box, and then close the Network And Dial-Up Connections window.

Lesson Summary

In this lesson, you learned that you must first install TCP/IP on a client running Windows 2000 before you can configure the client to use the DNS Service. Once you have installed TCP/IP on your client, you use the Network And Dial-Up Connections window to access the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) Properties dialog box for your client to configure it to use DNS. In configuring your client, you must select whether to have the client obtain the address of the DNS server automatically by having it provided by a DHCP server, or whether you want to manually type in the address of a DNS server. In the practice, you configured your computer to be a DNS client.