SBS2003 at head office connects to internet via Vigor router. At remote office, workstation connects to internet also using Vigor router. Workstation is joined to the Domain. Vigor routers implement a LAN-LAN VPN so that anything on head office network can see anything on remote office network and vice-versa. At remote office the router specifies itself as the DNS server, so this is what the clients see. This is normally ideal, because DNS queries for names on the internet are resolved via the ISP's DNS (the ISP serving the remote office). But clients need the SBS2003 to be their DNS server for all names relating to the local domain. OK so I could set the router to specify that the DNS server it publishes is the SBS2003 machine. But this means that absolutely all DNS requests go via the VPN to the SBS server, with consequent delay over the VPN and through SBS2003. Alternatively I can create a hosts file on the remote workstation(s) with all the names on the domain explicitly defined. The name of the SBS2003 is already defined there. Is there a better way? Can I get the workstation to refer to SBS2003 for local name resolution, and to the router for external name resolution? How does the workstation know which names are local?? Any ideas, please?
