Dumb IP address question

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Brian

I have a network of about 35 PCs in a Win2003 SBS domain. In addition, I have
two remote offices of four PC's each, also on the domain but via hardware
VPN. The main office does have DHCP running on the server, but all the PC's
have static IP's, for the reason below. The two remote offices have their own
DHCP servers (i.e. the router in each office), but the PC's, again, are all
assigned static IP's.

In order for users to access their PC's when working from home, I have set
each PC's RDP port to something other than 3389, then forwarded that port
through the firewall to the static IP address of the PC.

Problem: I have one laptop. It also has a static IP address so the user can
access it remotely; however, the user took it to one of the remote offices.
It could not get an IP address because it is set static, and the users are
all set up as Power Users (no local Admin membership).

How should I configure this laptop so that it has the correct static IP when
in the office by is dynamic when not in the office. Will I need to set it as
a DHCP client, but do a MAC reservation on the SBS DHCP server so that it
always gets the correct IP address when in the main office?

I wish there was a way for Alternate IP Configuration to work in reverse: go
to DHCP if the system determines that it is not in the network where its
static IP would work.
 
crossposted to the windows.server.sbs newsgroup for a more comprehensive answer
 
crossposted to the windows.server.sbs newsgroup for a more comprehensive
answer

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Peter

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Brian said:
I have a network of about 35 PCs in a Win2003 SBS domain. In addition, I
have
two remote offices of four PC's each, also on the domain but via hardware
VPN. The main office does have DHCP running on the server, but all the
PC's
have static IP's, for the reason below. The two remote offices have their
own
DHCP servers (i.e. the router in each office), but the PC's, again, are
all
assigned static IP's.

In order for users to access their PC's when working from home, I have set
each PC's RDP port to something other than 3389, then forwarded that port
through the firewall to the static IP address of the PC.

Problem: I have one laptop. It also has a static IP address so the user
can
access it remotely; however, the user took it to one of the remote
offices.
It could not get an IP address because it is set static, and the users are
all set up as Power Users (no local Admin membership).

How should I configure this laptop so that it has the correct static IP
when
in the office by is dynamic when not in the office. Will I need to set it
as
a DHCP client, but do a MAC reservation on the SBS DHCP server so that it
always gets the correct IP address when in the main office?

I wish there was a way for Alternate IP Configuration to work in reverse:
go
to DHCP if the system determines that it is not in the network where its
static IP would work.
Click to expand...


You are making something very hard that is actually very easy with SBS.
Instead of RDP set all the computers in the main office to use DHCP from the
SBS server and use Remote Web Workplace to access the computers from home.

http://blogs.technet.com/sbs/archive/2006/07/25/443383.aspx

This is a much more secure and easier way to do it, at least for the main
office.


For the remote offices I'd use a VPN router and have the home users
establish a VPN connection to the router then RDP to their desktop. The
desktops would still need static (or better reserved IPs) with individual
ports for RDP but you could block RDP access from outside the network at the
router.
 
as long as you get the routing and registration to DNS right _all_ members
of the domain (local and remote) will be available via RWW.
 
SuperGumby said:
as long as you get the routing and registration to DNS right _all_ members
of the domain (local and remote) will be available via RWW.
Click to expand...


It's tricky to set this up for remote offices unless they have a DC. I have
done it and then found it was a better user experience to RDP directly to
the remote office rather than RWW to the main office then RDP via RWW (over
a VPN) to the remote office. There was too much lag. I guess it all depends
on the speed of the links between the main and the remote offices.
 
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