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I run a little server environment with some clients (workstations and notebooks). Everything is working fine so far, clients are in my domain, primary dns is server and alternative is router, standard gateway targets the router ip. I gave all devices a static ip to have a better and simpler overview.

Now I had the case that someone took a notebook and wanted to work from outside the building. Obviously he couldn't connect to the internet because of the static ip settings. So he needed to set those settings to automatic ip with administration rights.

I am still green in network administration, is there a better workaround for a situation like this? I think when I set automatic ips on every client I still need to set gateway to router so it must be changed again when going outside.

Hans Martin
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Use DHCP for the clients.

Using static ip addressing doesn't give you a better or simpler view and it doesn't make managing your clients any easier.

When clients move to another DHCP enabled network they'll get the correct ip addressing they need, including the DNS servers and router. They won't need to manually do anything.

joeqwerty
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  • Thanks for the quick response! So I will change the manually entered ip, subnet, gateway and dns to automatically to solve my problem and activate dhcp or? But can my clients then enter my domain when they didnt know the server dns ip? – Hans Martin May 04 '19 at 10:04
  • Change the interface to DHCP and notice IP and DNS auto discovered. Network security and joining to directory (AD DS) are separate questions. – John Mahowald May 04 '19 at 13:03
  • But that is what I want to know. I know that discovering ip and dns automatically will solve the connection problem to the internet when clients are outside of my network. But when they get back in my network, I'll need to set dns and gateway so they can join my domain or am I mistaking here? – Hans Martin May 04 '19 at 14:05
  • What you need to do is to configure a DHCP server on your network to assign the clients the correct ip address, subnet mask, DNS server(s), and router. All of that can be configured in the DHCP scope in the DHCP server. Your clients won't need to do anything when they connect to your network, or any other network. – joeqwerty May 04 '19 at 14:32
  • Ah ok. I will try it but when I configure a dhcp on my network do I have to deactivate it on my router? – Hans Martin May 04 '19 at 16:27
  • You don't need to use a Windows DHCP server. You can use your router as the DHCP server as long as you configure it to assign the correct settings to the clients. You want to make sure the router assigns your server as the DNS server for the clients. – joeqwerty May 04 '19 at 16:32
  • Ok thank you so far! I will try it but I am not sure that I can get access to the router. Otherwise I will have to live with changing the settings. – Hans Martin May 04 '19 at 18:03