inefficient network setup?

[BigJonMX]

i'm hoping someone here can throw some light upon my problem...
We have numerous pc's, in a workgroup, all connected to a router, which acts as the DHCP server and the gateway to the internet.
We had an occasional server2003 added to the LAN for web developers to test, and browse, local websites.
(by typing http://projAA.comp.hq/ or http://projBB.comp.hq).
This all worked well by assigning to the PC's...
DNS1=192.168.5.55 (the development server)
DNS2=192.168.5.1 (the router).
This allowed everyone to always have access the internet,
and they could access the dev websites if and when the dev server was available (plugged in).
we now have a Server2008, setup just like before. Its replaced the Server2003.
BUT
very often some (random) dev website is unavailable.
i have discovered that if the dev server is on or off everyone has internet. =ok.
if i turn on the server, and remove DNS2, everyone has all the dev websites. =ok.
But the original setup is no longer reliable: the server doesnt seem to respond fast enough all the time.
And so the pc's move on to dns2 which of course knows nothing about local dev websites.
Are we just doing this wrong?
Can we make the dev server respond quicker?
or make the pc's wait a bit longer before giving up on dns1 and trying dns2?
Any ideas appreciated. Thanks.

 

[pparks1]

So, on this development server, you have DNS installed and configured? For example, you have local zones setup with FQDN's for your development web sites?

It sounds to me like you really need an internal DNS server on the network which is always on. And, you could set up a DNS forwarder on the DNS server to forward queries for the Internet to your Router, ISP or another outside DNS server.

 

[CommonTater]

DNS1=192.168.5.55 (the development server)
DNS2=192.168.5.1 (the router).

If your router has a built in DNS there should be no reason to list the server as an alternative DNS... the router should be able to handle it for you.

As you point out, you're tripping over the secondary DNS on the server which has no pass-through to the internet...

 

[BigJonMX]

unfortunately our router is a crippled hspa router owned by our isp, and annoyingly the dns settings are unavailable.
I already tried bridging an old router, which acted as DHCP and DNS servers, but i still ran into the same problem - the (mainly xp) pc's would give up waiting for DNS1/our-dev-server to respond and would move on to DNS2 - which would fail for dev sites... (just like the original description)

i retried our server 2003 and it all worked as it should (except its on dodgy old hardware hence its replacement). Does this mean server 2008 is slowly? Its on much better hardware than 2003!!
oh, and changing EDNS to disabled doesnt make any difference