How to Install and Configure Windows Server 2008 DHCP Server

How to install and configure DHCP Server in Windows Server 2008 to provide IP addressing and DNS server information to your end users.

Introduction

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is a core infrastructure service on any network that provides IP addressing and DNS server information to PC clients and any other device. DHCP is used so that you do not have to statically assign IP addresses to every device on your network and manage the issues that static IP addressing can create. More and more, DHCP is being expanded to fit into new network services like the Windows Health Service and Network Access Protection (NAP). However, before you can use it for more advanced services, you need to first install it and configure the basics. Let’s learn how to do that.

Installing Windows Server 2008 DHCP Server

Installing Windows Server 2008 DCHP Server is easy. DHCP Server is now a “role” of Windows Server 2008 – not a windows component as it was in the past.

To do this, you will need a Windows Server 2008 system already installed and configured with a static IP address. You will need to know your network’s IP address range, the range of IP addresses you will want to hand out to your PC clients, your DNS server IP addresses, and your default gateway. Additionally, you will want to have a plan for all subnets involved, what scopes you will want to define, and what exclusions you will want to create.

To start the DHCP installation process, you can click Add Roles from the Initial Configuration Tasks window or fromServer Manager à Roles à Add Roles.

Figure 1: Adding a new Role in Windows Server 2008

When the Add Roles Wizard comes up, you can click Next on that screen.

Next, select that you want to add the DHCP Server Role, and click Next.

Figure 2: Selecting the DHCP Server Role

If you do not have a static IP address assigned on your server, you will get a warning that you should not install DHCP with a dynamic IP address.

At this point, you will begin being prompted for IP network information, scope information, and DNS information. If you only want to install DHCP server with no configured scopes or settings, you can just click Next through these questions and proceed with the installation.

On the other hand, you can optionally configure your DHCP Server during this part of the installation.

In my case, I chose to take this opportunity to configure some basic IP settings and configure my first DHCP Scope.

I was shown my network connection binding and asked to verify it, like this:

Figure 3: Network connection binding

What the wizard is asking is, “what interface do you want to provide DHCP services on?” I took the default and clickedNext.

Next, I entered my Parent Domain, Primary DNS Server, and Alternate DNS Server (as you see below) and clickedNext.

Figure 4: Entering domain and DNS information

I opted NOT to use WINS on my network and I clicked Next.

Then, I was promoted to configure a DHCP scope for the new DHCP Server. I have opted to configure an IP address range of 192.168.1.50-100 to cover the 25+ PC Clients on my local network. To do this, I clicked Add to add a new scope. As you see below, I named the Scope WBC-Local, configured the starting and ending IP addresses of 192.168.1.50-192.168.1.100, subnet mask of 255.255.255.0, default gateway of 192.168.1.1, type of subnet (wired), and activated the scope.

Figure 5: Adding a new DHCP Scope

Back in the Add Scope screen, I clicked Next to add the new scope (once the DHCP Server is installed).

I chose to Disable DHCPv6 stateless mode for this server and clicked Next.

Then, I confirmed my DHCP Installation Selections (on the screen below) and clicked Install.

Figure 6: Confirm Installation Selections

After only a few seconds, the DHCP Server was installed and I saw the window, below:

Figure 7: Windows Server 2008 DHCP Server Installation succeeded

I clicked Close to close the installer window, then moved on to how to manage my new DHCP Server.

How to Manage your new Windows Server 2008 DHCP Server

Like the installation, managing Windows Server 2008 DHCP Server is also easy. Back in my Windows Server 2008Server Manager, under Roles, I clicked on the new DHCP Server entry.

Figure 8: DHCP Server management in Server Manager

While I cannot manage the DHCP Server scopes and clients from here, what I can do is to manage what events, services, and resources are related to the DHCP Server installation. Thus, this is a good place to go to check the status of the DHCP Server and what events have happened around it.

However, to really configure the DHCP Server and see what clients have obtained IP addresses, I need to go to the DHCP Server MMC. To do this, I went to Start à Administrative Tools à DHCP Server, like this:

Figure 9: Starting the DHCP Server MMC

When expanded out, the MMC offers a lot of features. Here is what it looks like:

Figure 10: The Windows Server 2008 DHCP Server MMC

The DHCP Server MMC offers IPv4 & IPv6 DHCP Server info including all scopes, pools, leases, reservations, scope options, and server options.

If I go into the address pool and the scope options, I can see that the configuration we made when we installed the DHCP Server did, indeed, work. The scope IP address range is there, and so are the DNS Server & default gateway.

Figure 11: DHCP Server Address Pool

Figure 12: DHCP Server Scope Options

So how do we know that this really works if we do not test it? The answer is that we do not. Now, let’s test to make sure it works.

How do we test our Windows Server 2008 DHCP Server?

To test this, I have a Windows Vista PC Client on the same network segment as the Windows Server 2008 DHCP server. To be safe, I have no other devices on this network segment.

I did an IPCONFIG /RELEASE then an IPCONFIG /RENEW and verified that I received an IP address from the new DHCP server, as you can see below:

Figure 13: Vista client received IP address from new DHCP Server

Also, I went to my Windows 2008 Server and verified that the new Vista client was listed as a client on the DHCP server. This did indeed check out, as you can see below:

Figure 14: Win 2008 DHCP Server has the Vista client listed under Address Leases

With that, I knew that I had a working configuration and we are done!

In Summary

In this article, you learned how to install and configure DHCP Server in Windows Server 2008. During that process, you learned what DHCP Server is, how it can help you, how to install it, how to manage the server, and how to configure DHCP server specific settings like DHCP Server scopes. In the end, we tested our configuration and it all worked! Good luck configuring your Windows Server 2008 DHCP Server!

How do I... Install and configure a DNS server in Windows Server 2008?

Without DNS, computers would have a very tough time communicating with each other. However, most Windows administrators still rely on WINS for name resolution on local area networks and some have little or no experience with DNS. Steven Warren explains how to install, configure, and troubleshoot a Windows Server 2008 DNS server.

1-As many of you are probably aware, the Domain Name System(DNS) is now the name resolution system of choice in Windows. Without it, computers would have a very tough time communicating with each other. However, most Windows administrators still rely on the Windows Internet Name Service (WINS) for name resolution on local area networks and some have little or no experience with DNS. If you fall into this category, read on. We'll explain how to install, configure, and troubleshoot a Windows Server 2008 DNS server.

Installation

You can install a DNS server from the Control Panel or when promoting a member server to a domain controller (DC) (Figure A). During the promotion, if a DNS server is not found, you will have the option of installing it.

Figure A

Domain controller

To install a DNS server from the Control Panel, follow these steps:

• From the Start menu, select | Control Panel | Administrative Tools | Server Manager.
• Expand and click Roles (Figure B).
• Choose Add Roles and follow the wizard by selecting the DNS role (Figure C).
• Click Install to install DNS in Windows Server 2008 (Figure D).

Figure B

Expand and click Roles

Figure C

DNS role

Figure D

Install DNS

DNS console and configuration

After installing DNS, you can find the DNS console from Start | All Programs | Administrative Tools | DNS. Windows 2008 provides a wizard to help configure DNS.

When configuring your DNS server, you must be familiar with the following concepts:

• Forward lookup zone
• Reverse lookup zone
• Zone types

A forward lookup zone is simply a way to resolve host names to IP addresses. A reverse lookup zone allows a DNS server to discover the DNS name of the host. Basically, it is the exact opposite of a forward lookup zone. A reverse lookup zone is not required, but it is easy to configure and will allow for your Windows Server 2008 Server to have full DNS functionality.

When selecting a DNS zone type, you have the following options: Active Directory (AD) Integrated, Standard Primary, and Standard Secondary. AD Integrated stores the database information in AD and allows for secure updates to the database file. This option will appear only if AD is configured. If it is configured and you select this option, AD will store and replicate your zone files.

A Standard Primary zone stores the database in a text file. This text file can be shared with other DNS servers that store their information in a text file. Finally, a Standard Secondary zone simply creates a copy of the existing database from another DNS server. This is primarily used for load balancing.

To open the DNS server configuration tool:

1. Select DNS from the Administrative Tools folder to open the DNS console.
2. Highlight your computer name and choose Action | Configure a DNS Server... to launch the Configure DNS Server Wizard.
3. Click Next and choose to configure the following: forward lookup zone, forward and reverse lookup zone, root hints only (Figure E).
4. Click Next and then click Yes to create a forward lookup zone (Figure F).
5. Select the appropriate radio button to install the desired Zone Type (Figure G).
6. Click Next and type the name of the zone you are creating.
7. Click Next and then click Yes to create a reverse lookup zone.
8. Repeat Step 5.
9. Choose whether you want an IPv4 or IPv6 Reverse Lookup Zone (Figure H).
10. Click Next and enter the information to identify the reverse lookup zone (Figure I).
11. You can choose to create a new file or use an existing DNS file (Figure J).
12. On the Dynamic Update window, specify how DNS accepts secure, nonsecure, or no dynamic updates.
13. If you need to apply a DNS forwarder, you can apply it on the Forwarders window. (Figure K).
14. Click Finish (Figure L).

Figure E

Configure

Figure F

Forward lookup zone

Figure G

Desired zone

Figure H

IPv4 or IPv6

Figure I

Reverse lookup zone

Figure J

Choose new or existing DNS file

Figure K

Forwarders window

Figure L

Finish

Managing DNS records

You have now installed and configured your first DNS server, and you're ready to add records to the zone(s) you created. There are various types of DNS records available. Many of them you will never use. We'll be looking at these commonly used DNS records:

• Start of Authority (SOA)
• Name Servers
• Host (A)
• Pointer (PTR)
• Canonical Name (CNAME) or Alias
• Mail Exchange (MX)

Start of Authority (SOA) record

The Start of Authority (SOA) resource record is always first in any standard zone. The Start of Authority (SOA) tab allows you to make any adjustments necessary. You can change the primary server that holds the SOA record, and you can change the person responsible for managing the SOA. Finally, one of the most important features of Windows 2000 is that you can change your DNS server configuration without deleting your zones and having to re-create the wheel (Figure M).

Figure M

Change configuration

Name Servers

Name Servers specify all name servers for a particular domain. You set up all primary and secondary name servers through this record.

To create a Name Server, follow these steps:

1. Select DNS from the Administrative Tools folder to open the DNS console.
2. Expand the Forward Lookup Zone.
3. Right-click on the appropriate domain and choose Properties (Figure N).
4. Select the Name Servers tab and click Add.
5. Enter the appropriate FQDN Server name and IP address of the DNS server you want to add.

Figure N

Name Server

Host (A) records

A Host (A) record maps a host name to an IP address. These records help you easily identify another server in a forward lookup zone. Host records improve query performance in multiple-zone environments, and you can also create a Pointer (PTR) record at the same time. A PTR record resolves an IP address to a host name.

To create a Host record:

1. Select DNS from the Administrative Tools folder to open the DNS console.
2. Expand the Forward Lookup Zone and click on the folder representing your domain.
3. From the Action menu, select New Host.
4. Enter the Name and IP Address of the host you are creating (Figure O).
5. Select the Create Associated Pointer (PTR) Record check box if you want to create the PTR record at the same time. Otherwise, you can create it later.
6. Click the Add Host button.

Figure O

A Host (A) record

Pointer (PTR) records

A Pointer (PTR) record creates the appropriate entry in the reverse lookup zone for reverse queries. As you saw in Figure H, you have the option of creating a PTR record when creating a Host record. If you did not choose to create your PTR record at that time, you can do it at any point.

To create a PTR record:

1. Select DNS from the Administrative Tools folder to open the DNS console.
2. Choose the reverse lookup zone where you want your PTR record created.
3. From the Action menu, select New Pointer (Figure P).
4. Enter the Host IP Number and Host Name.
5. Click OK.

Figure P

New Pointer

Canonical Name (CNAME) or Alias records

A Canonical Name (CNAME) or Alias record allows a DNS server to have multiple names for a single host. For example, an Alias record can have several records that point to a single server in your environment. This is a common approach if you have both your Web server and your mail server running on the same machine.

To create a DNS Alias:

1. Select DNS from the Administrative Tools folder to open the DNS console.
2. Expand the Forward Lookup Zone and highlight the folder representing your domain.
3. From the Action menu, select New Alias.
4. Enter your Alias Name (Figure Q).
5. Enter the fully qualified domain name (FQDN).
6. Click OK.

Figure Q

Alias Name

Mail Exchange (MX) records

Mail Exchange records help you identify mail servers within a zone in your DNS database. With this feature, you can prioritize which mail servers will receive the highest priority. Creating MX records will help you keep track of the location of all of your mail servers.

To create a Mail Exchange (MX) record:

1. Select DNS from the Administrative Tools folder to open the DNS console.
2. Expand the Forward Lookup Zone and highlight the folder representing your domain.
3. From the Action menu, select New Mail Exchanger.
4. Enter the Host Or Domain (Figure R).
5. Enter the Mail Server and Mail Server Priority.
6. Click OK.

Figure R

Host or Domain

Other new records

You can create many other types of records. For a complete description, choose Action | Other New Records from the DNS console (Figure S). Select the record of your choice and view the description.

Figure S

Create records from the DNS console

Troubleshooting DNS servers

When troubleshooting DNS servers, the nslookup utility will become your best friend. This utility is easy to use and very versatile. It's a command-line utility that is included within Windows 2008. With nslookup, you can perform query testing of your DNS servers. This information is useful in troubleshooting name resolution problems and debugging other server-related problems. You can access nslookup (Figure T) right from the DNS console.

Figure T

How to Type in Hindi in Mangal Font

मंगल फान्ट में हिन्दी टाइप करना 
(TYPING IN INSCRIPT) 

STEP 1. GO TO CONTROL PANEL > CLOCK, LANGUAGE AND REGION

STEP 2. GO TO CONTROL PANEL > CLOCK, LANGUAGE AND REGION

STEP 3. GO TO KEYBOARDS AND LANGUAGE TAB THEN CLICK ON CHANGE KEYBOARD BUTTON.

STEP 4. CLICK ON ADD BUTTON

STEP 5. SELECT AND CHECK HINDI > KEYBOARD > DEVANAGARI - INSCRIPT AS SHOWN BELOW THEN CLICK OK AGAIN OK.

STEP 6. AFTER THAT KEYBOARD WILL BE VISIBLE AS SHOWN BELOW, CLICK ON OK TO CLOSE THE DIALOG BOX. 

STEP 5. TO WRITE IN HINDI PRESS ALT + SHIFT KEYS TOGETHER RESULT WILL BE VISIBLE ON THE TASK BAR.

How to Get System Details Using Command Prompt

कमाण्ड प्राम्प्ट के द्वारा कम्प्यूटर की डीटेल जानें

Take the WMIC command, for instance. It has astonishing scope and a huge set of features: the program can return useful information about your system, control running programs and generally manage just about every aspect of your PC -- all from the command line or a convenient shortcut.

Open The Command Prompt With Administrator Priveledge. To do this...Press Start > Type cmd > Press Ctrl+Alt+Enter Key At Once

If This will ask Yes/No then Select Yes... & There You go

To know the detail of the motherboard or PC 

wmic baseboard get product,manufacturer

wmic bios get name

wmic BIOS get serialnumber

wmic product list brief

wmic service list brief

wmic process list brief

wmic startup list brief

wmic service get /format:hform > d:\services.html

wmic product get name

wmic product where name="mspaint" call uninstall

wmic process where name="iexplore.exe" call terminate

wmic process where name="notepad.exe" call setpriority 64

wmic /node:jetking-pc service list brief

कमाण्ड प्राम्प्ट के द्वारा कम्प्यूटर की डीटेल जानें

Take the WMIC command, for instance. It has astonishing scope and a huge set of features: the program can return useful information about your system, control running programs and generally manage just about every aspect of your PC -- all from the command line or a convenient shortcut.

Open The Command Prompt With Administrator Priveledge. To do this...Press Start > Type cmd > Press Ctrl+Alt+Enter Key At Once

If This will ask Yes/No then Select Yes... & There You go

To know the detail of the motherboard or PC 

wmic baseboard get product,manufacturer

wmic bios get name

wmic BIOS get serialnumber

wmic product list brief

wmic service list brief

wmic process list brief

wmic startup list brief

wmic service get /format:hform > d:\services.html

wmic product get name

wmic product where name="mspaint" call uninstall

wmic process where name="iexplore.exe" call terminate

wmic process where name="notepad.exe" call setpriority 64

wmic /node:jetking-pc service list brief

How to Block Websites On Your PC

वेबसाइट को ब्लॉक करना

DNS, which stands for Domain Name System, can convert the exclusive IPv4 or IPv6 addresses to meaningful names, and then translate the characters back to IP addresses. For example, when you want to visit a website, DNS will tell your web browser the real ip address of it and then web browser will download the web page directly from that IP address.

As you may expect, the process of translating IP addresses to website names will consume some time, which could cause access delay. Particularly, if the DNS servers are down, you will not be able to visit most websites through their URL, which isn’t uncommon.

Hence, it is necessary to make a list for mapping hostnames to IP addresses. That is whatWindows HOSTS file does. On most Windows systems, the HOSTS file content is used preferentially over other methods, such as the DNS. 

With the proper use of Windows HOSTS file, you can accelerate the access speed of favorite websites, test a website locally and even selectively block certain websites. 

In fact, blocking websites through the HOSTS file is an effective way to do it because it blocks it across all the browsers. 

Edit HOSTS File Manually 

Windows NT platform systems including Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows 7 have their HOSTS file in the path%SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\etc\ (“%SystemRoot%” is relative path, which depends on the system-wide environment variable, it should be C:\Windows or C:\WINNT in most cases). 

Basically, you just need to type the above mentioned path in Windows search bar (or run box) to get to the “etc” folder where you’ll find the HOSTS file.

You can use any text editor to open the file and edit it manually.

Note: For Windows 7 users, there’s one more step. Type “Notepad” in Start Menu search bar, and then right click on the “Notepad” item, choose “Run as administrator”. Now you can open HOSTS file with “File -> Open” menu in notepad

The HOSTS file contains lines of text including an IP address and one or more host names. You can add the mapping relationship of each websites. The comment lines are indicated by a hash (#) character, which will be ignored by system.

To block a website, simply add a line like this:

127.0.0.1 example.com

127.0.0.1 (or Localhost) is the standard host-name given to the address of your computer. You mapped the website name to your PC, hence you can’t visit the site any more. So if you want to block Facebook, just add this line into Hosts file: 

127.0.0.1 facebook.com

Installing Windows Server 2012 (step by step)

Windows Server 2012, codenamed "Windows Server 8", is the sixth release of Windows Server. It is the server version of Windows 8 and succeeds Windows Server 2008 R2. Two pre-release versions, a developer preview and a beta version, were released during development. The software was generally available to customers starting on September 4, 2012.

In this easy step by step guide, we will learn how to install and activate Windows Server 2012.

Before you start make sure you have the minimum requirements to install Windows Server (Windows Server Requirements):

Processor: Minimum: 1.4 GHz 64-bit processor
Ram: Minimum: 512 MB
Disk Space: Minimum: 32 GB
Other requirements:

• DVD drive
• Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher-resolution monitor
• Keyboard and Microsoft® mouse (or other compatible pointing device)
• Internet access

 You can then download the evalution copy of Windows Server 2012 from here, Download the ISO and burn it to some DVD:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/evalcenter/hh670538.aspx?ocid=&wt.mc_id=TEC_108_1_33

Now that we have everything we need, We can Start:

1- Insert the Windows Server 2012 DVD, and once you get the following message press Enter to boot from the setup

2- Wait for a while till the setup loads all necessary files (Depending on your machine, it will take couple of minutes)

 3- Once the setup files are loaded, the setup will start with the following screen. You can change these to meet your needs (the default values should be fine for now)

 4- Once you click Next, you can start the installation, click "Install now"

5- You will see the following screen, wait until it finishes loading

6- In the following setup screen, you will see four options. Select Windows Server 2012 DataCenter Evaluation (Server With GUI).

7- After you click Next from previous screen, Read the License terms, tick the "I accept the license terms" and click Next

8- Now It will ask you for the drive (or partition) you want to install Windows on. Here I'm installing it on the one partition I have here. NOTE: This will remove the content of the partition. Either you create a partition to install windows on, or you can test this on a testing machine

9- Now once we picked our partition, clicking on next from previous screen will start the setup. This process might take a while.

10- Once the setup is done, it will restart and start your Windows Server 2012 for the first time. It will ask you then to set up a password for the Administrator user

11- The setup will finalize your settings, might take a couple of minutes

12- Once the setup is done, you can log in for the first time to your Windows Server, as the screen says, press Ctrl+Alt+Delete to log in, and use the password you set in the setup process


13 - Once you Log in, Windows Server 2012 will show the Server Manager

Congratulations! you have now Windows server 2012 Installed with Datacenter