IP Address help for configuration of Windows Server 2003

[WarriorP]

I am not an expert in Windows Server configuration and so I am here to get some help. My office setup consists of 20 computers connect to Windows Server 2003 whose IP address is 192.168.1.2, subnet mask is 255.255.255.0 and DNS is 192.168.1.2. This states that my server IP address and DNS address are same. But one of my friend have completely different scenario. They have server IP address as 192.168.1.50, Subnet mask as 255.255.255.0, Gateway as 192.168.1.1 and DNS is 192.168.1.150. This clearly indicates that the server IP address is different from DNS address. So what I want to ask is that is there any difference between the 2 configuration? Can I change my configuration by changing the server ip address and dns address same?

[vprasad84]

Hello,

Your friend may be having windows 2003 domain controller on the ip address 192.168.1.150 & hence it should be also the DNS Server. The client computers would have joined to this domain controller & hence the DNS on the clients computers is setup to 192.168.1.150 so that they could resolve active directory domain name & login to that domain name. They should be also using the same DNS to resolve the hostnames for internet browsing. DNS is required to resolve names to ip addresses & you can browse internet names using with DNS & if DNS is not working then you cannot browse the internet using names.

[Wguy2008]

Both the scenario is completely different and thus you will notice difference in server configuration. In your case you have the DNS server and Windows Server 2003 configured on the same server and so you have both the IP address exactly same. However this is not the case with your friend. They might be using different computers for both the DNS server and Windows Server. And thus the difference in the IP address. It is upto you how you want to configure your server. In your case, if you want to change the IP address of the DNS server and the Windows Server then you can do that provided it has the same IP address.

[Connect_Me]

The later server configuration has separate machine setup for DNS and so they have different DNS server IP address. This is not in your case because you have DNS and Windows on the same server. According to me if your Windows server is also a domain server then it is better to have dns server in your domain server to avoid any conflicts. Regarding to your problem, you can change your configuration as per your need but just make sure the IP address remains the same.

[WarriorP]

Ok thanks for your support guys. So by that it means there shouldn't be any problem if I set my server IP address as 192.168.1.1, subnet mask as 255.255.255.0, and DNS as 192.168.1.1? I know I have asked you some silly question but I just want to make sure because I am very possessive about the network setup and so don't want to take any risks.