Lesson 5: Configuring a DNS Client

Now that you know how to install and configure the DNS Service on computers running Windows 2000 Server or Windows 2000 Advanced Server, you need to know how to configure your DNS clients. In this lesson you will learn what needs to be done to configure your DNS clients.

You must install TCP/IP on a client running Windows 2000 before configuring the client to use the DNS Service. To configure a client to use the DNS Service, you would do the following:

1. Right-click My Network Places, and then click Properties.
2. Right-click Local Area Connection, and then click Properties.
3. Select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), and then click Properties.
4. In the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) Properties dialog box, select Use The Following DNS Server Addresses.
5. Verify or type in the IP address of the Preferred DNS server, and if there is an Alternate DNS server, type in that name as well for this client, and then click Advanced.
6. In the Advanced TCP/IP Settings dialog box (see Figure 3.8), click the DNS tab.
7. In the DNS Server Addresses, In Order Of Use box, you can use the up arrow and down arrow buttons to set the client search order when sending queries to a name server.

A client will attempt to send its query requests to the name server at the top of the search order list. If that name server is not responding, the client will send the query request to subsequent name servers on the search order list.

Configure some of the clients to use the secondary server as the initial name server. This reduces the load on the primary server.

8. In the DNS Suffix For This Connection box, type the name of the DNS domain name.
9. In the Append These DNS Suffixes (In Order) box, click Add to add the names of the domains to search in order.

When searching for a host name in the zone database file, a DNS server first searches for the name only and then for the name combined with each specified domain suffix.

10. Click OK.

Figure 3.8 Advanced TCP/IP Settings dialog box

You must first install TCP/IP on a client running Windows 2000 Server before you can configure the client to use the DNS Service. Once you have TCP/IP installed, you can use the Advanced button to access the DNS tab and configure the IP addresses of the DNS servers and the DNS domain names your client will be using.