Dialup Networking with TCP/IP

You intend to setup a configuration like:

where a TCP/IP connection is required for either connection to a mainframe (which is most often done via TCP/IP) or to other systems on a company internal Wide-Area-Network (WAN).
In such configuration, you need to be aware about a limitation of Windows95/98 ( as it is documented in detail in the Resource Kit) :

That forces the use of Windows NT workstation (or server) as a Dialup Networking server (and in some cases forces the presence of a Windows NT server, see below)
1) Setup of Windows NT workstation as RAS server
I am starting with an NT4 workstation, connected to both a Novell Netware server (using IPX/SPX) and to a Windows NT4 server (using TCP/IP).

	For the connection to the Novell Netware server, “Client Service for Netware“ is installed. However, to keep it simple, I will configure RAS only for connection to the Windows NT server and other TCP/IP connections ( for connection to Novell, see : Dialing in via NT4 RAS/DUN to Netware)
	TCP/IP is configured for a private range of IP-addresses.

I start now the installation of RAS (the modem is already installed and configured):


	It starts up directly the configuration of RAS, asking to add the modem as RAS device.
	Since I like to use this system also for my connection to the Internet, I configure it for “Dial in and Receive Calls“
	I configured the Network for TCP/IP for my dialout connection (to the Internet) and the Server setting in this case only for TCP/IP. I need to configure the TCP/IP settings.
	I like to connect not just to the Windows NT station, running RAS, but to ALL systems on the entire Network. I need to define the method of IP-address assignment. In this example, I did NOT use DHCP, but assigned a pool of IP-addresses not yet used on the local network segment. NOTE: I use as IP-address the SAME subnet (192.168.1.x) as for my Network card !
	The reminder, that you need to assign a permission to the Users, which are allowed to connect via RAS
	Check, that the TCP/IP protocol is configured for routing, that IP Forwarding is enabled.

To test you setup:
– define now a connection to the Internet
– configure the connection
– make a connection to the Internet.
Then, start up RAS for Dialin(either manual startup or automatic on boot).
Wait now for an incoming call.
2) Setting up a Windows95/98 Client

	Install your Modem, then install Dialup Networking (DUN) (I prefer now to always use the DUN 1.2 Upgrade and install it, even if I do NOT use VPN)
	Define the connection to the Windows NT RAS Server, then configure the connection: – you MUST logon – define the TCP/IP settings
	Since the NT RAS server is assigning the IP-address, we can leave all items on “server assigned“
	we are ready to connect, to dial: define the username (and password), as defined in the NT-system. (I also suggest, that you logon to your Windows Client using already this Username and password to identify yourself, that will avoid later access permissions issues, when connecting to the remote network)
	To check your connection, run WINIPCFG (type it into the RUN-menu) and see, which IP-address has been assigned to you.
	check, with PING, that you have a working connection to the systems on the network cable (like: the NT server and/or the mainframe) to ensure, that the IP-routing / forwarding is working.

We can check the incoming connection on the Windows NT RAS server:
	Either using RAS Admin or Dialup-Monitor, we can see also the IP-address assigned to the Client.
	using in a DOS-box (“Command Prompt“), IPCONFIG also displays the IP-address assigned to the Dialup-adapter of the RAS server to handling the incoming call.

Now we like to access the data on the disk of the NT4 RAS server and on
the disk of the NT4 server, so we look into Network Neighborhood:

	But Network Neighborhood shows only “Entire Network” and double-clicking that brings up the famous message: “Unable to browse the Network“ Your system could not find any Browse-master !
	Trying it via FIND/COMPUTER doe also not locate any system on the network.

I have not found anywhere a clear explanation for this behavior, so I worked out for myself the following reasoning (if I am wrong, please correct me):
The systems on the local Ethernet network work out between themselves the election of the Browse-Master (which should be in my case the NT server), but this automatic selection and the participation to the Browse-Master database is NOT automatically available for other network connections, like the RAS clients.
To make the Workgroup (and its BrowseMaster) available to other network segments, the workgroup concept is enhanced: Systems are not anymore working out itself, who is a member of the workgroup, but register themselves at a predefined system using a special database, which then can also be queried for information. On Microsoft networks, this is the:
“Windows Internet Name Service (WINS)”,
which can ONLY be installed and run on a Windows NT SERVER
(not on Windows 95 / 98 or on a Windows NT workstation).

Installation of WINS on Windows NT server:
	On the Windows NT Server, add as additional Service the Windows Internet Name Service
	Here is the purpose of WINS, as defined by Microsoft: “Dynamic name registration and resolution service that maps NetBIOS computer names to IP addresses“
	There is then a WINS manager in the Administrative Tools.
	But what I have read about WINS, it is fairly much “maintenance free“, no need to configure/setup.

Configure the Windows NT RAS Dialin system for WINS
	On the NT RAS system, configure now the TCP/IP to include the definition of a WINS-server (in this case: the IP-address of the NT server). (there seem to be other methods, like using DNS or LMHOSTS, which I still need to check out).

When we now connect (dialin) on the Windows95 / 98 client:

	WINIFCFG show now also the address of the WINS server.
	The Network Neighborhood allows now the access to the shared resources on the local area network (LAN).

3) Access from the LAN to the disk of the Remote Client
A question, sometimes asked: can the Remote Client share its disk ?

	On the Windows95 / NT4 client, install File-and-Print sharing .
	You MUST share SOMETHING !

On the systems on the Local area Network:
	The RAS Client did NOT show up in the Network Neighborhood of the LAN systems, but it can be located via FIND/COMPUTER and then accessed.