Hello,

i'm new here, but so far this is a very informative place.

Could someone please help me understand this dns scenario for me.

theres 2 domains. lets call them pacific.com and atlantic.com

both are running windows 2000 server with AD and DNS ad integrated.

I have created a secondary dns zone on pacific.com that caches atlantic.com's dns server. I have done vice versa the same on atlantic.com

there is a file server that resides on atlantic.com called 'file01". Now to reach the shares , my users on pacific.com have to map using this method:

\\file01.pacific.com\myfiles

I was wondering, If i have setup a secondary dns zone, can I not access the file server on the other domain simply by:

\\file01\myfiles ?

i'm just a little confused here.

Thanks guys,

great site!

I think you'll have to use the full domain name.

ChocIST

*cracks knuckles*

Lets get bussayyyyy!!


Well you are kind of right but i think you are missing a vital part to your resolution predicament. The question should be SHOULD we be able to access \\file01 from the atlantic domain?

the answer = depending on your DNS Suffix search list

If you do an IPConfig /all on your workstation .. any really ... you will get (as long as everything is workign well) in the DNS suffix search list the name of the domain that the computer account is in.

The problem lies with the fact that the dns search suffix list DOES NOT have the suffix for the opposite domain.

Ofcourse this is all theoretical as you have not actually given many details/results of your troubleshooting. So this is purley what i reckon.

to verify my therom:

nslookup
file01
> read the error if there is one (i suggest there would be)
file01.atlantic
> should get the server resolved

So in summary - add the dns suffix to your list ...
VIA (if u dont know) properties on ur LAN Adapter, IP properties,advanced, DNS, Append these suffixes in order.

And then type in your own dns zone suffix first, then add the opposite domain.

IF THIS ALL WORKS ... type

nslookup
file01
>should resolve at this stage to file01.atlantic.com

now one thing i havent addressed in this situation is the possibilty of both domains having the same computername for the server IE both atlantic.com and pacific.com having a file01. In which case this coudl be solved with a CNAME record. If this is the case just let me .. or us know .


Hopeful this has actually helped!

Ah I see.

Well thank you for that explanation.

is there anyway to perform the same procedure or another way but globally on the network? If i wanted everyone to be able to do that instead of going to every pc and adding that entry in?

thanks for your reply

You can set the search order on xp machines with group policy (2k3 server) - if not xp, then here are some other methods;

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q275553/