Using DNS by configuring the TCP/IP protocol

This article describes how to use domain Name Services (DNS) in Windows XP by configuring the TCP/IP protocol.

DNS is an Internet service that converts a domain name to an IP address. On the Internet, when you use a domain name during network operations, the DNS service is responsible for converting the domain name to the corresponding IP address. For example, domain www.reskit.com may be converted to IP address 178.145.135.6.

In a corporate network environment, you can configure Windows XP appropriately so that it automatically detects the IP address used by the domain controller. In addition, you can manually configure the domain controller IP address. These two configurations are described in detail below.

If you want to configure TCP/IP, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, click Control Panel, Network and Internet connections (network and Internet connection), and clicking Network Connections (network connection).
2. Right-click the network connection that you want to configure, and then select Properties from the shortcut menu that appears.
3. On the General tab (for local connections) or the Networking (Network) tab (for all other connections), select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) [Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)] and click Properties.
4. If you want the DNS server address to be obtained through the DHCP server, as shown in Figure 1, click Obtain DNS server address automatically (automatically obtain DNS servers addresses).

   Figure 1. Obtaining DNS server addresses from a DHCP server

5. If you want to manually configure the DNS server address, click Use the following DNS server addresses (using the following DNS servers address) and in Preferred DNS server (preferred DNS server) and alternate In the DNS server (alternate DNS server) text box, enter the preferred DNS server and alternate DNS server addresses, respectively.

To configure advanced DNS properties, follow these steps:

1. Click the Advanced (Advanced) button and select the DNS tab.
2. The DNS properties are configured through the following sections of the overview described in this article:
3. Configure additional DNS server IP addresses.
4. If you want to modify the resolution for DNS domain names that are not qualified.
5. If you want to modify the DNS dynamic Update method.

To configure additional DNS server IP addresses, follow these steps:

1. In the DNS server addresses (DNS servers address) zone, click Add (Add) in the order in which you use it.
2. As shown in Figure 2, in the TCP/IP DNS server (TCP/IP DNS servers) box, enter the IP address of the DNS server and click Add.

   Figure 2. Configure additional DNS server IP addresses

To modify the resolution for an unqualified DNS domain name, follow these steps:

1. To resolve the unqualified domain name by adding the primary DNS suffix and the DNS suffix for each connection (if it has already been configured), click Append primary and connection specific DNS Suffixes (the DNS suffix that attaches the primary and connection attributes). If you also want to search the secondary domain for the parent suffix of the primary DNS suffix, click Append parent suffixes of the primary DNS suffix (append the parent suffix of the primary DNS suffix) check box.
2. If you want to resolve the unqualified domain name by appending the suffix to the list of configured suffixes. Please select append these DNS suffixes [append these DNS suffixes (in order)] and click the Add button to add a suffix to the list.
3. If you want to configure a DNS suffix for a specific connection, enter the DNS suffix in the DNS suffix for this connection (DNS suffix of this connection) box.

To modify the DNS dynamic Update method, follow these steps:

• To register the IP address and computer primary domain name for the current connection through DNS Dynamic Update, click the selected register this connection ' addresses in DNS (registering this connection's address in DNS) check box. This option is in the selected state by default. The computer's primary domain name refers to the primary DNS suffix appended to the computer name, which you can computer in the Control Panel, System properties The name (computer name) tab to view it as full computer names.
• To register the IP address and this connection-specific domain name through DNS dynamic update, click the Select Use this connection ' s DNS suffix in DNS registration (using this connection's DNS suffix in DNS registration) check box. By default, this option is disabled. The connection-specific domain name used for this connection is the DNS suffix appended to the computer name for this connection.

  Note: If you want to disable DNS dynamic update for all names on your computer, clear the Register this connection's addresses in the Network Connections (Network Connection) dialog box for all connections DNS (registering this connection's address in DNS) and use this connection's DNS suffix in DNS registration (using this connection's DNS suffix in DNS registration) check box.