Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Airport TC and home DNS server

HI,


I have a Windows 2008 small business server providing logins to Windows clients at home.


I use this so that resources can be shared, passwords reset, PC's shared etc on the network. It works (well, worked) well and I am (was) happy with it.


I have a 2013 iMac & a late 2012 Macbook. These worked great with my Virgin Superhub 2 configuration and could mount SMB shares/see all other PC's on the network.


I have purchased a 3TB Airport TC as the superhub is notoriously unreliable with wireless and I also wish to be able to perform remote backups of my mac computers (I already have a solution for my PC's and fudging Time Machine to backup to Windows based network shares was clunky at best).


The TC has been configured in router mode. The Superhub has been set to Modem mode. I had to turn off my DHCP server as the TC won't do NAT unless it is also the DHCP server (frustrating). Still, I reserved addresses to the hosts I need to map ports to, set that up and all was looking good.


I then realised that the DNS servers were being assigned purely from the ISP. This makes sense as my DHCP server has been taken offline. I thought I could over-type the TC DNS entry with my internal Windows 2008 Domain Controller DNS service. If I do this, all my PC's access the internet perfectly but the TC has the flashing amber light. It IS routing traffic to the internet for PC's attached (doing NSLOOKUP resolves both internal and external addresses) but all my mac computers suddenly stop working.


In brief - I can't put my own interna DNS server into my TC config without it thinking there is something wrong.


There may be - but the DNS server I set up (purely .local addresses) has been working great for a long time.



I wish to resolve all hostnames on my Mac as well as on my PC's without having to edit host files or over-write DNS domains on clients - DHCP should allocate the correct data.


Thanks!

Airport Time Capsule (3TB - 7.7.2)-OTHER, iOS 7.0.4, Windows 2008 Domain controller, DNS

Posted on Jan 22, 2014 7:49 AM

Reply
4 replies

Jan 22, 2014 12:31 PM in response to whaleyp

Let me backup a little..


I am not sure why the Macs are failing and the PC work.. that would be interesting to pursue at some other time.


But I think your network arrangement can be made simpler.


Go back to your old layout.


The TC can be bridged to the superhub. It can however take over the role of wireless AP.. simply turn off wireless in the superhub and create the wireless network in the TC.


I also wish to be able to perform remote backups of my mac computers


Apple state clearly if you want to use Time Machine, use it locally.. not from remote access. TM is easy to corrupt the backup and it needs a fair bit of bandwidth back and forth.. it is a very intense kind of backup.. checking loads of local stuff against the backup.


In fact this might be prevented from working in Mavericks at all.


Your Macs are designed to backup locally until they get back home and can start using the TC again.


If you really do want to bypass the restrictions you can still access the TC remotely by simply using AFP protocol to the bridged TC. See method 3 here.


https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3413


The TC and all the apple routers are lacking in controls for some of the more complex setups. It is a home device designed for simple home network.. it is not designed for any situation where you are running a complex type business network. (very few Mac home users run SBS). And even with a Mac Server the setup of the TC is fairly complex.


One trick being to set the TC up to hand out a single IP to the Mac. And that the Mac Server then takes over as dhcp server to hand out IP addresses to the rest of the network. Such a setup may work for you.


Although the normal network rules are you cannot run two dhcp servers.. you can if one is setup to hand out a single address to a reserved address which is the server.


I have tried to find details of that kind of setup but I have lost it.. you will need to fudge it and see how it works in your network.

Jan 22, 2014 1:11 PM in response to LaPastenague

Thanks so much for the reply - I went with your first suggestion and settled on 'fudge it'..


I switched to bridge mode and disabled wireless... everything worked flawlessly - but as problems are so much fun to solve AND this existing router has caused me so many problems... I absolutely had to figure this out - I'm 95% there (I think 🙂 )


I am now back to the cable modem in pure modem mode. My STUPID mistake was configuring the DNS forwarding address on my server to 192.168.4.100 not 194.168.4.100 (and 8.100) - my fingers worked faster than my mind - virgin use these 194 ranges that I changed to 192 without ever spotting.


It now works as I planned. mostly.


All PC's are ignorant and work wonderfully.

If I disable only the ethernet adapter - everything works. Everywhere.

If I disable wireless - everything works everywhere apart from the airport config tool; it can't even find the TC! I can cope with that


All clients can see each other - my macbook is great - the imac works - but airplay can't configure or see the TC until I re-enable wireless - if I understood how the TC presents itself to the network I'm sure I'd work this out too.


Thanks so much for your help! Apologies for the 'remote backup' diversion - I didn't ever really want to remotely backup - I wanted to back up on the local network/wirelessly/not connected - not 'remotely'. Sorry!

Jan 22, 2014 1:32 PM in response to whaleyp

All clients can see each other - my macbook is great - the imac works - but airplay can't configure or see the TC until I re-enable wireless - if I understood how the TC presents itself to the network I'm sure I'd work this out too.


If you have the right bent.. you can be endlessly entertained with TCP networking.. that is for sure.


The problem with accessing the TC when the wireless is off is fairly simple.. Apple changed things in the v6 airport utility.. and more with Mavericks than ever before so the utility is highly dependent on wireless.


I have the same problem. But it is not consistent.. right now it is working.. but I use a router running Tomato Shibby or Gargoyle or several others as I am a tester. I have a managed switch and the TC sits off that in bridge or some other strange mode depending on what I am doing at the time. Sometimes I will need to swap to the airport wireless directly so the v6 utility can see it.


It does not affect the v5 utility.


In the v6 utility you should be able to make it work by feeding in the IP address.


Hopefully you can easily discover the IP of the TC.. the easiest way from the computer I have found is to open netstat in network utilities and run a scan.


The output looks like this. At least on the ipv4 side.


User uploaded file


Locate the name of your TC in there.. if you used correct names.. ie short, no spaces and pure alphanumeric you will find it works a heck of a lot better than apple names.

You can see I have Gen3 and Gen4 TC and Gen5 AE all networked together.


Now simply ping it to find the IP address.


You will need the full domain name.. mostly.. LOL. Because I am wireless connected the gargoyle router.


ping tcgen4.local

PING tcgen4.local (192.168.2.201): 56 data bytes

64 bytes from 192.168.2.201: icmp_seq=0 ttl=255 time=4.923 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.2.201: icmp_seq=1 ttl=255 time=3.987 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.2.201: icmp_seq=2 ttl=255 time=1.247 ms

^C

--- tcgen4.local ping statistics ---

3 packets transmitted, 3 packets received, 0.0% packet loss

round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 1.247/3.386/4.923/1.560 ms


So my TC is sitting at above address.


In airport utility go to the top menu, configure other..


User uploaded file



User uploaded file


Stick in the IP address and password if you changed it from default... or it is not stored in the keychain.


That should then work.


Most important.. for the setup of mixed networks.. make sure you keep all naming in the TC to SMB standard.. short, no spaces pure alphanumeric.. well it is a bit more complicated than that.. but keep simple and it is easy to remember and will work.

Airport TC and home DNS server

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.