DNS resolution issue

Bear with me on this one, techies... I'm not exactly sure how to describe it.

I have a name resolution issue, but ONLY when trying to add network printers.

The background:
We have a fully routed MPLS network connecting us here at HO to our zone offices. We recently rolled out new print queues to a batch of new cannon printers to all the zones, though the print server resides here at HO (I know, I know... I didn't design it). So yes, a dude in Vancouver who wants to print to his local canon printer has to send the job across the MPLS network to here in Toronto, and then wait for the rastored job to be sent back to his printer.

Anyway, DNS resolution works fine in every other instance... ie, internet browsing, mapped drives, and they can ping HO server names and get replies.

When they launch the Add Printer Wizard and select to add a network printer, they cannot begin entering the name of one of the print servers and get the list of associated printers. As you'd expect, when I do the same here at HO, as soon as I begin to type the server's name, I get a list of possible servers... when I select one, all the printers are listed.

If anyone has an insight that I've missed... well hell, I'd appreciate it.

Mike

Edit: Realized I could have added more details... for example, an ipconfig /all of any remote client shows the correct IPs for both DNS and WINS (2 HO dc's doing the job).

Also, there's one exception to the issue... one of the zones has a single subnet attached to the far side of its CE router. That one zone has no issues with resolution, even when adding a printer. All of the other zones have two far side interfaces... each attaches to a different subnet/vlan. They all have the resolution issue.

If more info is needed, I can post the router configs.

Mike

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Comments

dynamik

This is just a shot in the dark, but it might be using NetBIOS broadcasts to find printers on the local network, which is why it's working for you and not for them. It may not be a DNS issue at all. Are you running AD? I'd think the best way to go about this would be to publish the printer in AD and then having users browse for that printer in AD.

Take that with a grain of salt; printers aren't a strong area of mine.

mikearama

Thanks for replying, mik.

I don't believe, when clients are configured with primary and secondary DNS servers, that broadcasting occurs. I understood that clients unicast directly to the IPs listed.

I doublechecked and I had added ip-helper-address commands to all the MPLS CE routers, so broadcasts from the zones would be forwarded as unicast packets to the ip address specified, which are the AD servers acting as DHCP and DNS servers. However, as this is used only for DHCP, it shouldn't matter.

What baffles me is why only one zone can resolve the print servers when no others can, and yet they all share what appears to be identical client-side configs. The only apparent difference is the use of multiple vlans/subnets in the zones with the issue, but all manner of connectivity has been long confirmed... just not the Add Printer Wizard.

Dayum!

dynamik

NetBIOS is huge for file/printer sharing, so I wouldn't totally rule that. It's still used for browsing the network and things like that, even if you have DNS servers configured. I don't know anything about MPLS, but I doubt you're sending NetBIOS broadcasts over that.

Can they add it if they manually type the FQDN? Can you ping the printer by FQDN? If you can resolve the name to an IP, you know the problem isn't with DNS.

rsutton

I didn't see this mentioned yet, so are you able to ping the printers by IP? Are they able to access the printer server, IE Start > Run > \\Printserver\ and see the list of printers there? If so what happens if you try to double click on one of them? Any errors?