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Connecting Networks Together
Brien Posey
Contributing Writer
2003-06-30
 SecurityProNews RSS Feed
If you manage a small network, you might have never considered the complexities involved in connecting networks together. The idea of wide area networking might seem way beyond the scope of anything that your small network could ever require. However, there may come a time when you need to connect two or more small networks together. Even if these small networks reside within the same building, you can run into some unexpected consequences if you try to connect the two networks without proper planning.
At first glance, there may seem to be no harm in simply running a patch cable between hubs to connect the two networks together. After all, both networks are small and traffic overflow shouldn't be a problem. It may seem that the real work would be involved in establishing trust relationships and security policies. However, if the two networks use TCP/IP, simply connecting a wire between the two networks can cause a major problem.
Suppose for a moment that both networks use a DHCP server to assign IP addresses and WINS server references to clients. Now suppose that a new client comes online. The client will transmit a lease request for a DHCP server. If the two networks have been connected then either DHCP server can respond to the request. If the computer is supposed to be a part of network A but the DHCP server from network B assigns the IP configuration information then the computer won't be able to login to the network. This is because the domain controllers on network A are only referenced by the WINS servers on network A. The network B WINS server has no idea that network A even exists and therefore doesn't know the names or IP addresses of network A's domain controllers.
The solution to such a problem is to make the WINS server on network A and the WINS server on network B replication partners. This means that the WINS servers in the two networks will exchange information with each other about the computers on their respective networks.
To make the two WINS servers replication partners select the Replication Partners command from the WINS Manager's Server menu. When you do, you'll see the Replication Partners dialog box, as shown in Figure A. Now, click the Add button to add the IP address of the WINS server on the other network. By default the WINS server will be configured as a push and a pull partner. This means that it will send information to the other WINS server and will get information from it. This is the desired configuration for the situation that we're working with. You might have noticed in our figure that there's a Configuration button that's associated with the Push and Pull replication options. These buttons allow you to configure how often the various push and pull operations occur. The default values are usually OK.
Figure A
The Replication Partners dialog box allows you to make the two WINS servers aware of each other's existence for the purpose of exchanging information.
Once you've configured a WINS server to act as a replication partner, you must configure the other network's WINS server in the same manner. Once you've done so, you can click the Replicate Now button to begin the replication process.
First appeared at http://www.brienposey.com
About the Author:
Brien Posey has written thousands of technical articles on a variety
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to Brien's personal Web site at http://www.brienposey.com. Brien's Web site
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