Andne

I would think that they would wipe any image the manufacturer put on the server and install their own software no matter who made the hardware.  Why would a call-home app be left on there?  Guess it could have been tied into the driver for some of the management hardware or something like that...

Yeah, my workaround is more about trying to remove any dependency on my WS2012E for all client computer's web surfing. Not a fan of having to ask numerous family members for a "change control" window just to reboot my server (during which time they cannot surf).

 

This especially holds true for those systems that aren't in my home, where I'd much rather those systems use local DNS, fed by DHCP from their own routers.

 

A while back I found another workaround for this, but it only works on domain-joined computers.  I added a group policy to the domain that disables the network service.  Unfortunately I can't find back the directions now.  I also configured my router DHCP server to provide the WSE 2012 server as primary DNS and the router as secondary DNS.  That way if the server is rebooting, clients should fall back to using the router instead.  Biggest drawback so far has been that internal dynamic DNS for my computers doesn't work the best.  I'm still trying to figure out on and off if I can get pfSense to update the Microsoft DNS server.

 

Oh, it looks like the domain policy does survive the connector update.

The company that I know of that has pretty cheap plans is Tracfone.  I never used my phone much when I had them, so I just bought the 1 year cards - they're around $100 I think and they come with a fair amount of time.  I'm not sure what their prices have done lately, haven't had one for 4 years now, but they were pretty good before then.

Shoot, now I'm getting really tempted to make a shopping run to Best Buy.  I've been thinking about one of these to replace my laptop, and now that I could just go pick one up, it's really tempting...

 

I do really want the Pro because I want to be able to use Lightroom on it, otherwise I maybe would have bought an RT already.

 

Must. Resist. Impulsive. Purchase....   aarggh

Since server 2012 essentials is a domain controller, it has to run the DNS as well. Active Directory depends on a number of DNS entries in order to operate properly. The one thing I have been trying to figure out lately is how to make the DHCP server in my router update the WS2012 DNS server with the hostnames of my computers.