Configure TCP/IP to use DNS

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

To configure TCP/IP to use DNS

  1. Open Network Connections.

  2. Right-click the network connection you want to configure, and then click Properties.

  3. On the General tab (for a local area connection) or the Networking tab (for all other connections), click Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), and then click Properties.

  4. If you want to obtain DNS server addresses from a DHCP server, click Obtain DNS server address automatically.

  5. If you want to manually configure DNS server addresses, click Use the following DNS server addresses, and in Preferred DNS server and Alternate DNS server, type the preferred DNS server and alternate DNS server IP addresses.

  6. To configure advanced DNS properties, click Advanced, click the DNS tab, and do one or more of the following:

    • To configure an additional DNS server IP address:

Under DNS server addresses, in order of use, click Add.

In TCP/IP DNS server, type the IP address of the DNS server, and then click Add.

  • To modify the resolution behavior for unqualified DNS names, do the following:

To resolve an unqualified name by appending the primary DNS suffix and the DNS suffix of each connection (if configured), click Append primary and connection specific DNS suffixes. If you also want to search the parent suffixes of the primary DNS suffix up to the second level domain, select the Append parent suffixes of the primary DNS suffix check box.

To resolve an unqualified name by appending the suffixes from a list of configured suffixes, click Append these DNS suffixes (in order), and then click Add to add suffixes to the list.

  • To configure a connection-specific DNS suffix, type the DNS suffix in DNS suffix for this connection.

  • To modify DNS dynamic update behavior, do the following:

To use a DNS dynamic update to register the IP addresses of this connection and the primary domain name of the computer, select the Register this connection's addresses in DNS check box. This option is enabled by default. The primary domain name of the computer is the primary DNS suffix appended to the computer name and can be viewed as the full computer name on the Computer Name tab (available in System in Control Panel).

To use a DNS dynamic update to register the IP addresses and the connection-specific domain name of this connection, select the Use this connection's DNS suffix in DNS registration check box. This option is disabled by default. The connection-specific domain name of this connection is the DNS suffix for this connection appended to the computer name.

Notes

  • To perform this procedure, you must be a member of the Administrators group or the Network Configuration Operators group on the local computer. For more information, see Default local groups and Default groups.

  • To open Network Connections, click Start, click Control Panel, and then double-click Network Connections.

  • To completely disable DNS dynamic update for all names on the computer, clear the Register this connection's addresses in DNS and Use this connection's DNS suffix in DNS registration check boxes for all connections in Network Connections.

Information about functional differences

  • Your server might function differently based on the version and edition of the operating system that is installed, your account permissions, and your menu settings. For more information, see Viewing Help on the Web.

See Also

Concepts

Host name resolution
TCP/IP configuration items
Advanced configuration
Configure TCP/IP for static addressing
Configure TCP/IP to use WINS
Dynamic update