Essentials 2016 connector without static DNS override?

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Calling all Essentials gurus! I know Essentials is all but dead but I still have one client using it for backing up desktop machines. That works quite well for machines that stay on site and can always reach the server on the LAN.

When a laptop leaves the site, the Essentials connector is supposed to realize this and stop setting the DNS server to be the static IP of the Essentials server. Unfortunately, setting it back to DHCP doesn’t always work, so the user winds up off site with no Internet access because the the static LAN IP is not reachable as a DNS server.

My question is, has anyone found a way to disable just the DNS update capabilities of the Essentials 2016 connector? I just want it to stay on DHCP all the time–I’ll use the router to set DNS to point to the server when on site. According to very end of this article, this used to be possible with Essentials 2012 by disabling the Windows Server LAN Configuration Service, but that service doesn’t exist when the Essentials 2016 connector is installed.

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https://server-essentials.com/support/connect-computers-to-a-windows-server-essentials-server-without-joining-the-domain  Scratching my head but see if that will do the trick?

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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Thanks. Yeah workgroup mode might make it leave DNS alone in the NIC, but I do use the domain for Group Policy etc. so I want the laptop on the domain.

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I would post over on Mariette’s forum, in the meantime I’ll ask around.

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I posted on server-essentials.com about a week ago. The post showed awaiting moderation for a few days, then disappeared. Is that forum still active?

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I see this in one of the connected desktop’s ClientOperator.log:

[7912] 220808.212521.1989: ClientSetup: NetGetJoinInformation (server = [], …)

If I have time, I might try to take a laptop off site and check the logs for errors.

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Wasn’t there a registry key you could set to stop it doing that?

As I’m writing I’m remembering something about that needing to be set at connector install time.

What do you mean it doesn’t always work setting it back to DHCP? That the service kicks in and sets it back to static?

Remind me, is there a service called WSS LAN Configuration on the client?

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Robert,

Thanks very much for chiming in.

Robert wrote:

Wasn’t there a registry key you could set to stop it doing that?

Would love for it to be that simple!

Robert wrote:

As I’m writing I’m remembering something about that needing to be set at connector install time.

I don’t recall seeing any related options in the setup wizard.

Robert wrote:

What do you mean it doesn’t always work setting it back to DHCP? That the service kicks in and sets it back to static?

The other way around:  it’s already static because you’re on site, but when you leave the LAN, it doesn’t revert to DHCP; it’s stuck on static. Which prevents the user from resolving anything on the Internet. So the service should detect that it’s off the LAN (maybe a failed ping to the IP of the server?), but it doesn’t.

Robert wrote:

Remind me, is there a service called WSS LAN Configuration on the client?

Not that I see. You mention the Windows Server LAN Configuration Service at the end of this article, but I guess that’s for 2012 R2 Essentials only?

https://windowspoweressentials.com/2013/06/17/unravelling-the-mystery-of-client-dns-with-essentials-family-servers/

 

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Okay Robert, gold star for you! Poking around in the client registry, I found

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Server\Networking\ServerDiscovery\SkipAutoDNSServerDetection

With that name, I was able to backtrack to

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/update-rollup-3-for-windows-server-2012-essentials-7e71b958-0b1c-25ba-7f60-4213a51186b1

also archived as KB2862551:

https://mskb.pkisolutions.com/kb/2862551

which talks about disabling DNS detection for a single client or at the server level for all clients (HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Server\Networking\ClientDns\SkipAutoDnsConfig).

That article is about Rollup 3 for Essentials 2012. It’s not clear if that will work on 2016. The server key isn’t there on 2016. But I don’t see it on a 2012R2 Essentials box either.

This thread suggests that the registry “hacks” work on 2016 but only if you uninstall and reinstall the connector:

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/3f499dc7-182a-43b6-8f18-3feff862dc6d/windows-server-2016-essentials-overwriting-dns-servers?forum=winserveressentials

Well it’s worth a try!

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and suggestions.

 

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