Providing Internet services is one of the most complicated configuration tasks an administrator faces today. With so many services running on a single server, it is critical for an administrator to understand how their Small Business Server network is designed and how to use the custom tools Microsoft
Small Business Server provides. A key function of Small Business Server is its ability to provide Internet services to the small business network. To facilitate the configuration tasks for these Internet services, Small Business Server supplies the Small Business Server Internet Connection Wizard.
This series of technical articles describes various network services commonly used in small business environments, outlines the network topologies supported by Small Business Server, and specifies how to use the Small Business Server Internet Connection Wizard. This paper also explains the steps for configuring remote access on your Small Business Server using a dial-up or virtual private network (VPN).
Network Services
Small Business Server supplies numerous services including DNS, Windows Internet Name Service (WINS), DHCP, Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2000, Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) 5.0, and Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server that provide seamless networking features to the Small Business Server network. It is important to understand the various services that work together in the Small Business Server network. Additionally, to automatically configure their network services and ensure proper configuration, it is highly recommended that administrators use the Small Business Server Internet Connection Wizard.
DNS
The DNS Server service provides name resolution for Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional and Windows XP Professional client computers. When a client needs to find a computer, it queries the DNS service on the Small Business Server computer. If the computer name is found, the DNS service returns the IP address; otherwise, the request is forwarded to the Internet service provider (ISP) using configured forwarders.
A local DNS server improves query performance for local network resources without requiring an external query to your ISP’s DNS servers. To resolve queries for Internet resources, your DNS server is configured to forward the queries to your ISP’s DNS servers. By using your ISP’s DNS servers for name resolution, you do not have to manage DNS records for Internet resources.
In addition to providing name resolution, the DNS Server service is required to support Active Directory.
When you run Setup and the Small Business Server Internet Connection Wizard to configure DNS, the following changes are made:
- To prevent your DNS server from resolving queries for Internet resources, the root zone automatically created when DNS is installed is deleted.
- To prevent your DNS server from resolvi