[K12OSN] Blocked net access

[Les Mikesell]

David Whitmer wrote:
>>
>> This means that is HAS to be a DNS/lookup issue. If it was the
>> routing of the traffic, then you wouldn't be able to reach external
>> sites at all. For some reason the windows boxes aren't getting a DNS
>> server from DHCP automatically. What are the network settings on the
>> windows machines?
>>
> 
> The Windows PC (XP Home Edition) is configured to get its network
> settings automatically via DHCP.  When I run "ipconfig /all" in a
> command window on that PC, all the settings (IP address, default
> gateway, subnet mask, etc) look the way they should.
> 
> I can post a copy of the server's dhcpd.conf (or any other
> information) if anyone's interested in seeing it, though I won't be
> able to do that until this evening.

The dhcp clients should be getting the k12ltsp server's address
as the DNS server as well as the default gateway.  You should
see this with the ipconfig /all.   The server itself will do
its own lookups (and thus those for thin clients) based on the
'nameserver' entries in its /etc/resolv.conf file and the local
/etc/hosts file can override those lookups.  However, to act
as a nameserver for other machines, you must have the named
program running and configured properly. Some tests you can
do:
   service named restart
If you don't see the 'OK' during the shutdown step, it wasn't
running and you need to  'chkconfig named on'.  If there are
errors in the startup you need to fix /etc/named.conf file.
   dig
will show the root servers based on lookups from a server
in /etc/resolv.conf.  If this works but
   dig @localhost
does not work, your nameserver can't reach the root servers.
One thing that might cause that is firewalling at your internet
gateway. You may have to add the nameservers listed in your
/etc/resolv.conf (which seem to be working) and add them as
'forwarders' in your /etc/named.conf file.  This will make your
named pass the queries to the specified (and reachable) servers
instead of attempting the lookups directly.  Once you have named
working on the server, the clients behind it should also work,
which you can test with 'nslookup some_internet_name'.

-- 
   Les Mikesell
    les at futuresource.com