[NeverTriedApple]

hey guys,

leopard macbook is a part of MS SBS (Small Business Server) 2003 network and it takes Safari or Firefox a few seconds to display search results when using google or keying in a URL. To join windows network I used method explained in SBS 2003 unleashed book by Eriq Neale.

i guess it is not normal not to say it is very annoying. Other Windows machines display results almost instantly so I suspect cross-platform connectivity.

my question is if installing a separate BIND server (i can use mini for it) would help to resolve this issue or what are other solutions available?

[Cold Warrior]

You could try using OpenDNS (OpenDNS | Providing A Safer And Faster Internet) as a baseline for your DNS lookups. Configure the Macs to use them and see if that improves things.

[Cold Warrior]

Also, I've moved this to Networking.

[Simon]

I second the suggestion to use OpenDNS. I experienced similar trouble when I connected a Leopard MBP to one of these MS DNS. Once I switched to OpenDNS everything was back to snappy.

[NeverTriedApple]

i configured my macbook to work with OpenDNS and it does boost the DNS resolution, however there's another problem now.

Entourage 2008 won't connect to SBS Exchange mailboxes anymore. SBS active directory resources would show up much quicker than before meaning i can connect to the windows network, but not Entourage.

note. i did not remove Windows DNS server address from the list. i just added two from OpenDNS. i couldn't remove Windows DNS from the list - it was greyed out. i presume if i deleted it anyway i would not have any connection to SBS shared resources at all.

any ideas? many thanks

[NeverTriedApple]

update.

i can get entourage connected to exchange by using server's IP address not a canonical name. not the best solution but works.