Domain Name System

The Domain Name System (DNS) resolves friendly computer names to IP addresses. DNS is sometimes referred to as the BIND service in BSD UNIX.

To specify the DNS server that a workstation uses, you double-click Network in Control Panel to reach the configuration options for TCP/IP properties. A workstation's TCP/IP configuration typically includes one or two DNS servers that are on the local network. If a DNS server is unable to identify the IP address of a name requested by the workstation, it sends back information about other DNS servers that might be able to resolve the address. The workstation then queries the new set of DNS servers.

The Domain Name System makes it easy for users to access information from servers on the Internet. For example, it is easier to remember the name www.microsoft.com than to remember the IP address for that server.

To use the Domain Name System, workstations must be configured to recognize at least one DNS server's IP address. DNS server addresses can be assigned to a computer in one of two ways:

• Static TCP/IP configuration on the workstation
• Dynamic assignment by a DHCP server

In the Remote Access Service, DNS server addresses are assigned to remote workstations in one of three ways:

• Static assignment on the workstation
• Static assignment on the RAS server, which in turn assigns that address to remote workstations
• Dynamic assignment to the RAS server by using DHCP; the RAS server in turn assigns that DNS server's address to remote workstations

The RAS server always assigns the DNS address to workstations dialing in that run Windows NT Workstation or Windows 95. The address is either statically assigned by the RAS server or dynamically assigned for the RAS server by DHCP. For remote access solutions from vendors other than Microsoft, remote users might need to statically assign their DNS server.

For more information about setting up a RAS server to use DNS, see the Windows NT Server Networking Supplement.