Win 2003 Server (DHCP) connecting to the internet

[gillm]

Hi all,

I scanned through the previous posts and found an entry close to my setup, but the solution made me nervous so I thought I would describe my scenario to get some comments. I'm doing some side work to add some software installation to a previous setup, so I am trying to keep the original network design without major changes.

Ive got one Win 2003 Standard Server running DHCP to five workstations. The server is assigned 10.1.1.1, and the workstations start at 10.1.1.100 and then increment upward. The the mask on the server is 255.255.255.0, and there is no gateway assigned. This is not Active Directory or a domain, the machines are just in a workgroup with file sharing enabled.

All the machines are connected to each other via a non-managed switch, which also has a Linksys router on one of the ports. The router is the connection to the DSL modem. I am assuming (for now) that the router is still the Linksys standard 192.168.1.1 address, but I cannot ping the router from any of the workstations or the server.

I need to be able to implement internet connectivity for the server and workstations while also providing a protected connection. The other solution described in the forums used the router as just a switch for connectivity, but Im not sure thats what I want.

Is this an IP routing issue on the server? I'm assuming that becuase the server allocates all the IP addresses the workstations are looking to the server to provide the gateway for the internet access. So the question is what do I do on the server to enable this model? I need the server to facilitate a connection to the router so we can connect to the internet. I think this is IP routing (or is this WAN connectivity?), but Im not sure. Comments?

Thanks all for your help!

Mark

[davis]

The router is on a different subnet mask and ip address then what your machines are being assigned. in order to access the router, you would have to change one of your machines to the linksys scheme in order to get into the pannel.

If you disablle dhcp on the router, and connect it to the wan port, you should still be able to get internet thru the router, while still having the server provide internet.

you can always find out what the router is getting as the gateway from your isp and then set that in your windows 2003 server as the gateway to use.

[gillm]

Ok, thanks. This gets me started. I was going to take my laptop in and connect it directly to the back of the router to review the router setup.

Once I connect to the router I will make sure dhcp is disabled. I lost you on your 'connect it to the WAN port' comment. Right now the DSL model is connected to the WAN port and the other machines are on a switch and the switch is running from one of the standard ports from the router. Are you suggesting that I leave this config alone? Or change something?

And finally, if I configure the server machine (connected to a standard port on the router via the switch) with the ISP gateway it will route through the switch, through the router and out to the internet? The assumption I make that is that every workstation (in addition to the server) would need the gateway configured?

I'm still fuzzy on if the workstations are going to use the server to get to the internet because they got their ip address from the server, or if they are going to 'find' their own way to the internet via the router.

Thanks for your help!

[davis]

if your router is broadcasting a dhcp then that means you'll be having some problems with routing on the network.

If your pc's get their ip addresses from the server, then you should be able to tell them what gateway to use to get out thru the server as well.

What i meant by my comment, is right now your router is getting the ip address and subnet mask from your isp (assuming there are no issues with the router yourself) and broadacsting dhcp on the network. and your server is also broadacasting dhcp as well, so that means that the routing tables arent matching what the router is telling your machines to use in order to connect to the net.

by turning off the dhcp of the router and enabling dhcp passthru (if your router supports it, that is) you should be able to enter the information from the router's setup page in order to access the net. if not then you'll have to connect the isp link into the switch part of the router, and bypassing its features in order to get connectivity to the net.