Some of the pc nebios name resolutions for my network are showing names of external companies. This is probably due to the fact that we are not using the standard IANA IP Addresses. Can anyone tell me briefly the implications of carrying on using these IP Addresses and any possible resolutions. I have come up with the following ideas: Setup an internal DNS Server or WINS (integrated). DHCP - (trying to avoid this option) Change our addressing scheme (also trying to avoid this option). We currently use NAT and DNS for Internet connection. We use to have a Proxy Server but I am unsure whether the problem existed then. Perhaps reinstating the Proxy will contain name resolution to within the LAN. Any thoughts much appreciated.

If you had proxy server at one time and don't have it now, someone may have had difficulty setting it up correctly. Windows has a new proxy called ISA server, it is a lot more user friendly than the old one. I think that you should get a handle on that ip address situation now before it gets bigger and worse. I have W2k server using DNS, DHCP and ISA. Love it, and it works. Check up on ISA at http://www.isaserver.org I have also used RedHat linux as a server which works fine also. That can be setup with DNS, DHCP and iptables. I probably would still be using that, but had to use the parts elsewhere. Check up on that at http://www.tldp.org

Turn an old PC into a router. Sounds like you should stick with windoze. I suggest a fantastic product called winroute pro. If you have a small network<20 a P133 with win95/98/me/XP 32MB and 2 nics are all you need. You have many options, a proxy server, dns forwarder/server, mail, DHCP, NAT, etc... I use DHCP, NAT and forward the apropriate ports to the apropriate machine. Proxy is available for those who dont know what they need. You can also play with the DNS forwarding / server in order to resolve internal names anyway you like. Goodluck

You need to give some more info. What do you mean - "Some of the pc nebios name resolutions for my network are showing names of external companies". Give an example. You are throwing around terms in the wrong context. Give some specfic examples and maybe we can help. Your post is confusing and none of the responses are correct so far.

Hi Glen, in response: I have used a Fluke Analyzer and Network Mon and have discovered that DNS Names are resolving to companies outside our organisation. I have used various DNS lookups which confirms this. Only some of the pcs are showing wrong addresses because their IP range have not yet been registered (600 pcs in org). If you tracert the IP address on one of the pcs it shows the external company name rather than the computer name. If you amend the Hosts file accordingly it then shows the computer name due to the order of name resolution. We did use a Proxy Server until we had problems with the Firewall. I am sure we did not have this problem before because there was no need for DNS entries for Internet access. We are going to revert back to the Proxy Server as soon as we can which will probably resolve the problem. Ideally, we should change to Class B IANA reserved 172.16.0.0 (Static or DHCP)but this would have major implications for us. At the moment we do not have any apparent problems on any of our Networks, WANS included. Monitoring network traffic can be a bit of a pain as the source and destination are showing up wrong names. I know we have to resolve this situation as it may be causing problems with DNS Servers and routing but before going ahead I wanted to make sure I had considered all my options. In addition, I would like to thank everyone for their posts.

It sounds like you have taken the IP address of some valid Internet addresses so the DNS servers resolve to the registered name. I agree, this may cause conflicts but would more than likely not cause a problem for the 'real' host because anyone trying to find them would go to them and not you. When you had the proxy server those IP address were hidden behind the proxy and were not exposed directly to the Internet which appears to have happened now. If you are directly connected to the Internet and are using addresses not registered to you then you have a couple options. Either buy some valid addresses or use a proxy server of some sort. I think you'd be better off changing the IP addresses of your LAN clients to one of the reserved spaces, 10.x.x.x, 192.168.x.x, or whatever works for you, and then using the proxy or NAT or whatever. It may be a hassle but it shouldn't have been set up like it was so you might as well just bite the bullet and fix it. Hope that helps.