Internet Access is slow as molasses....

  • Thread starter Thread starter Fred Hammond
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Fred Hammond

Every since I set my desktops to use the Win2k3 AD server as the primary DNS
server, whenever I am on the Internet via Internet Explorer or Firefox, it
takes a while for pages to come up, sometimes I often get a message saying
that the page can not be found. Then I just hit reload and the page comes
up.

Here is how my home network is setup:

1) WinXP desktop (running DHCP)
2) Win2k Pro desktop (running DHCP)
3) Win2k3 Active Directory Server (running AD, DNS, and DHCP services)
4) Netgear MR814v2 Wireless Router
5) Comcast Cable modem (plugged into wireless router)

Both desktops have the Win2k3 server as its primary DNS server. I used to
have the Wireless router as the primary DNS, but I had some problems with
filesharing on the XP desktop, so I changed the primary DNS to the AD
server.

It's funny that when the router was the primary DNS server, I didn't have
the problem that I am currently having.

So anyway, it seems like each time I go to load a website, it seems like IE
or Firefox is thinking about whether or not it wants to go to that website.

Question is, why is this so slow? Are there some settings I can tweak?
Please advise. Thanks!!!
 
Fred said:
Every since I set my desktops to use the Win2k3 AD server as the
primary DNS server, whenever I am on the Internet via Internet
Explorer or Firefox, it takes a while for pages to come up, sometimes
I often get a message saying that the page can not be found. Then I
just hit reload and the page comes up.

Here is how my home network is setup:

1) WinXP desktop (running DHCP)
2) Win2k Pro desktop (running DHCP)
3) Win2k3 Active Directory Server (running AD, DNS, and DHCP services)
Click to expand...

Is the DNS server set up with forwarders to your ISP's DNS servers?
4) Netgear MR814v2 Wireless Router
5) Comcast Cable modem (plugged into wireless router)

Both desktops have the Win2k3 server as its primary DNS server. I
used to have the Wireless router as the primary DNS, but I had some
problems with filesharing on the XP desktop, so I changed the primary
DNS to the AD server.

It's funny that when the router was the primary DNS server, I didn't
have the problem that I am currently having.
Click to expand...

Don't use any external IP addresses for DNS in any server or computer's IP
config. Just the internal DNS server. The forwarders will take care of
external resolution.
 
And be sure to have no typo in the IP-address of one of the forwarders like
I had a few months ago. generated exactly the same problem.

"Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]"
 
Every since I set my desktops to use the Win2k3 AD server as the primary DNS
server, whenever I am on the Internet via Internet Explorer or Firefox, it
takes a while for pages to come up, sometimes I often get a message saying
that the page can not be found. Then I just hit reload and the page comes
up.

Here is how my home network is setup:

1) WinXP desktop (running DHCP)
2) Win2k Pro desktop (running DHCP)
3) Win2k3 Active Directory Server (running AD, DNS, and DHCP services)
4) Netgear MR814v2 Wireless Router
5) Comcast Cable modem (plugged into wireless router)

Both desktops have the Win2k3 server as its primary DNS server. I used to
have the Wireless router as the primary DNS, but I had some problems with
filesharing on the XP desktop, so I changed the primary DNS to the AD
server.

It's funny that when the router was the primary DNS server, I didn't have
the problem that I am currently having.

So anyway, it seems like each time I go to load a website, it seems like IE
or Firefox is thinking about whether or not it wants to go to that website.

Question is, why is this so slow? Are there some settings I can tweak?
Click to expand...

Your Server 2003 should be the *only* DNS in the client settings. Set
the Server 2003 DNS to forward to your ISP's DNS for unresolved
queries.

Jeff
 
Jeff, my Win2k3 server is set up to run DHCP, so under Scope Options, I told
it that the DNS server is the IP of the Win2k3 server. In terms of having
forwarders set up in DNS on the Win2k3 server, I do have 1 forwarder in
there and that is pointing to the IP of the wireless router (192.168.0.1).
I am doing this becuz the router is getting the ISP IP Address automatically
and DNS addresses automatically from Comcast. So, the way I looked at it is
that any external DNS requests from the clients (desktops) would go to the
Win2k3 server, which would go to the wireless router, which would go to
Comcast's DNS servers and so on.

But it sounds like you are stating that I should not have a forwarder
pointing to the router, instead it should be pointing to Comcast's external
DNS servers (I would have to somehow find out what they are). Is that what
you are stating?
 
A funny thing just happened.

I looked at the settings on the wireless router and realized that I had its
DNS server IP address pointing back to the Win2k3 server. I changed this to
get DNS address automatically and VOILA!!!! Any website I went to pops right
up, no delay.

Coincidence??? HMMM!!!!!

Thanks to all who provided feedback to me.
 
Why does Win2k3 have to be in total control of DNS in this manner? It seems
like it is adding an extra layer to the DNS hierarchy to me? Instead of the
desktop clients going to the router directly, now it needs to go thru the
server, which in turn goes to the router. Why not eliminate the middle man?
 
In
Fred Hammond said:
Why does Win2k3 have to be in total control of DNS in
this manner? It seems like it is adding an extra layer
to the DNS hierarchy to me? Instead of the desktop
clients going to the router directly, now it needs to go
thru the server, which in turn goes to the router. Why
not eliminate the middle man?
Click to expand...

In an Active Directory environment DNS is where the Domain Controller stores
its service location records. If the Clients use the ISP's DNS they won't be
able to find the domain Controller, startup and logon time will be extremely
long and network access will be very slow. Internet DNS resolution is a
secondary function and can actually an improvement over using your ISP's DNS
because you have a locally cached DNS database.
 
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