DNS Server Order Incorrect on Windows 7 via PPTP VPN to Windows 2003 Server

Question

When I connect a Windows XP laptop via PPTP vpn to our Windows 2003 Server, the DNS Server order is correct:

192.168.8.3
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

But when I connect a Windows 7 laptop via PPTP VPN to our Windows 2003 Server, the DNS order is incorrect:

208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220
192.168.8.3

What do I need to do on our Windows 2003 Server to fix this so the when I do a ping, it will work correctly?

Solution 1

Multiple DNS servers are usually provided for the case of redundancy, not for "chaining" requests. If you want to do that, there's a much more efficient solution.

208.67.x.x - I assume these are your ISP's DNS severs? If you want to query these only if a request to 192.168.8.3 does not resolve to anything, then you can do this with a DNS Forwarder, but even better is to skip it alltogether an use Root Hints in your DNS server (so that it gets its own DNS records, rather than proxying them through another DNS).

However, for this example, I'm going to assume you want to continue to use a DNS forwarder, for whatever reasons, and that your DNS server is also a Windows 2003 machine (credit to http://www.petri.co.il/install_and_configure_windows_2003_dns_server.htm):

1. Click Start, point to Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click DNS to start the DNS Management Console.
2. Right click the DNS Server object for your server in the left pane of the console, and click Properties.
3. Click the Forwarders tab.
4. Check the Enable forwarders check-box.
5. In the IP address box enter the IP address of the DNS servers you want to forward queries to - typically the DNS server of your ISP. You can also move them up or down. The one that is highest in the list gets the first try, and if it does not respond within a given time limit - the query will be forwarded to the next server in the list.
6. Click OK.

This way you only need to have a single DNS entry for the PPTP connections, but the end result is the same.

Solution 2

I have seen this same problem on XP machines and it was solved by this:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;311218

However it did not work on my Win7 machine; I ended up creating an entry in the HOSTS file - not the best soliution by a mile but it got my client up and running.