Random authentication requests

[ngrayson]

Guys,

I'm running DHCP with Ip addresses reserved by MAC address. Also assumming user by IP so valid users should be authenticated. Authentication is set for basic not JAVA.

After wingate has been running for a few days, one of the clients gets a dialog box (presummably your java) saying the firewall (giving its IP address) requires authentication.

Why is this when its worked perfectly for days.

Second point, I'm trying to migrate and get NetBeui out of the network but I dont understand the relationship between the WINS server and DNS server. i.e. when a machine comes up and it allocated its IP, does the DNS make a local entry or do I still need my hosts file. Further, do I need an LMHOSTS file or will your resolver sort all this out for me. If there is a paper somewhere to do this please point me to it.

Many thanks in advance.

[adrien]

Hi

It is odd that it would start behaving differently after a while. The IP hasn't changed on the client in this time has it (i.e. if a DHCP lease expired).

As for WINS and DNS, from Win2k onwards, you don't really need WINS, since the client machines normally are set to register with a Win2k (or later) dynamic DNS server. Then the computer names are resolved using DNS to the windows DNS server rather than a request to a WINS server.

how many machines do you have on your LAN, and what OSes are they running?

Adrien

[ngrayson]

Hi Adrien,

I agree that its odd however, even if the lease had expired, then since its reserved by MAC address it would surely be reallocated the same one when it requested it. Since I am assuming users on IP, it should be a seameless request and authentication.

I will try to nail down the conditions it happens under (being able to see the dhcp allocation would be usefull ;-) ). It all works fine initially and it does not always happen so I'm as confussed as perhaps you are.

With respect to the network, its very small. 4 clients only with a mixture of XP, 98 & ME.

Regards
Neil

[kgoodknecht]

Second point, I'm trying to migrate and get NetBeui out of the network but I dont understand the relationship between the WINS server and DNS server. i.e. when a machine comes up and it allocated its IP, does the DNS make a local entry or do I still need my hosts file. Further, do I need an LMHOSTS file or will your resolver sort all this out for me. If there is a paper somewhere to do this please point me to it.

With respect to the network, its very small. 4 clients only with a mixture of XP, 98 & ME.

Regards
Neil

Under some conditions, file sharing using NetBEUI IMO, is preferred over TCP/IP, such as in a pure peer to peer network.
But since you mentioned DNS and WINS, I'm assuming Active Directory is in the picture. Since you have Win98 and ME clients you have two choices to use in order to take all need for NetBEUI out of the picture. These legacy clients (Win9x ME and NT4) do not support Dynamic DNS registration so, you must use Win2k Win2k3 DHCP to register these clients in DNS. You can also use WINS, which is preferrable if you use Network Neighborhood. NetHood is populated by the Computer Browser service, which uses NetBIOS, which doesn't cross routers so is unreliable broadcast protocol.

What all this comes down to is, use a combination of DNS, WINS and Win2k DHCP, since you are using legacy clients. Then configure the Forward Lookup zone for your AD Domain to look in WINS to resolve names.
WINS is not required in a pure Win2k environment on only one subnet or if you don't use Network Neighborhood.