DNS works but how ?

[Paulreg]

Hi
My DNS seems to work OK but I don't see how it can!
I have set up DNS on a W2K server on my LAN. It will resolve names/addresses on my LAN but it also seems to resolve addresses over the WAN to head office as well. I thought if a DNS server could not resolve an address it would go to the internet root and get an address for say .com, then go to the .com DNS server and get an address for say the dns server .microsoft.com and so on. Given the addresses at head office are unknown to the internet, how can my DNS server resolve them ? Can it broadcast and auto discover other DNS servers ? There are other DNS servers on both LAN and at head office.
I am pinging from the DNS server and the ip config of that server only has itself as its own DNS server. Thanks Paul

 

[michaylukr]

Is your DNS setup within Active Directory? If it is, then all the zones can propagate between servers. Also, are you certain that it is DNS that is providing the resolution? It is possible that WINS could be as well.

 

[abrannon]

Paul;

Have you setup Sites in Active Directory? Have you setup the DNS forwarders? Open the DNS manager, is this server listed as a Name server?

 

[Paulreg]

DNS is not AD integrated. I am not certain DNS is providing the resolution. (Is there a way of checking ?) WINS is not installed. There is only the default site in AD. I have no forwarders listed. The DNS server is listed as a name server.
I should mention that Head Office have an entirely seperate Forest. As well as resolving head office addresses using ping, I have also used MS nslookup and I have downloaded a GUI based nslookup tool which when resolving using the DNS server ip address in the server config of this tool, lists all the DNS servers it has found that are able to resolve the head office address ! Thanks Paul.