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DNS / DHCP Configuration

Good day.

We have SBS2003 installed and running. It has the following functions: DNS, Internal Web Site (mycompany), Exchange 2003, and DHCP.

When I have a client set all of the TCP/IP settings automatically, almost all items work - proper IP address, gateway, and DNS addresses. The client can navigate out to the web; however, they can not navigate to the mycompany web site (http://mycompany). If the client types in the internal IP address of the server, it will display the default page. Clicking the link to mycompany web page will not work either (obviously its the same address). What do I have wrong? I tried to put the internal IP address of the server within the IP range of the DHCP, but it didn't work.

Thanks in advance.

If the local domain name is the same as the external domain name, this is normal, the domain will look for the ressource in the internal network. You have to open DNS admin on your domain server, and create a new A record for the WWW website, pointing to the correct ip address.

This should do it.

ASKER

still can not get it to work. if i do the following:

my server name is myEmailServer

if i navigate to http://myemailserver i get the SBS2003 welcome screen and the following options: my company's internal web site (which is what i want), network config, remote web workplace, information and answers. all of the links work with the exception of the "my company's internal web site." i can navigate to: http://myemailserver/exchange/validusermailbox - it responds and works well.

i went into the DNS server and put a new A record under forward lookup zones - it didn't fix the issue, however. Under name, type, and data i have the following:

companyweb, Host (A), and the IP of the server. i assume this is what you were referring to. I don't have anything else for it - SOA, NS, or CNAME.

thanks.

Sorry, tought that your Corp website was external at first.. this would have been the problem.. let me think a bit :)

if this like is not working "my company's internal web site", what is the link it is pointing to??

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#4 did it for my workstation - but i don't want to have to add this entry and maintain it for all of our workstations.

as far as the router is concerned, this http request should never make it to the router since the web site i am trying to get to is internal.

while the name of the computer is myemailserver, the actual url is http://companyweb (this is the default for SBS2003). i don't seem to understand the dns well enough to have the server map this to itself.

The easiest way to do this, actually, is just tell your users to go to http://<Name_of_Email_Server>. For example, if your email server's FQDN (Fully QUalified Domain Name) is Exchange.mycompany.com, they should be able to access it internally using http://exchange.mycompany.com or even http://exchange

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ASKER

you are correct - that is the way it should work. if i navigate to the FQDN i get the 2003 welcome page. it is when i use the first link (my company's internal web site <- verbatim from the default web page) which redirects users to http://companyweb. i tried to put /companyweb after the FQDN but it didn't work. i tried to put it in the domain name and that didn't work.

that is why i thought it was a dns issue - nowhere on the network does it understand the url http://companyweb. therefore, it tries to go outside and fails. so, i thought somewhere in DNS i could tell it that http://companyweb is really the server itself (dns and this default internal web site are on the same machine). i don't understand why Microsoft decided to use these defaults and not have the defaults work on client machines (another reason why i thought i had something misconfigured).

i appreciate your time.

Yes... Just go to the Active-Directory-Integrated zone (aka your domain's DNS) in your DNS server, and add an "A" record, or Host for "companyweb" and assign it to the IP address.

So... Technically, the FQDN should be http://companyweb.company.com or something like that, because you are all in the same domain, you should not have to worry about the domain suffix, so you should be able to get to http://companyweb that way.

Finally, if you are running WINS, you can also create a Netbios name for companyweb that points to the server.

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ASKER

one more follow up question, please.

when i go into the forward lookup zone, is it normal that the only entry starts with _msdcs and then the server name. for instance, _msdcs.myemailserver.local.

i put the "A" record inside of this folder.

thanks.

Hmmm.. You should also find another entry called myemailserver.local as well... That's where you are supposed to add the "A" record...

If not, then you should probably create a Forward Lookup Zone for mydomain.local

By the way, shouldn't it be _msdcs.mydomain.local, NOT _msdcs.myemailserver.local?

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ASKER

yes, you are correct - it is _msdcs.mydomain.local.

i added the forward lookup zone and put in the "A" record.. still no go.

I have decided to go with your #4 answer.... our staff will have to add the entry to the hosts file.

thanks for all of your help.

perhaps the actual website HTML is referencing frames, pictures, files, and links using the www.myemailserver.com. This means that you can navigate to "http://myemailserver/", but nothing will really work.

ASKER

what i don't comprehend is the following:

my DHCP server assigns to me two (2) DNS servers which are from our ISP provider. If my client computers use these DNS servers, how does is reference the SBS 2003 box? I would think that the SBS2003 would be my DNS address which would do the work. so, by using "http://myemailserver/" it is using the ISP DSN and can't resolve the name. I don't know if i am phrasing this correctly or not but i see this as the true issue. if i change my client computer's dns to my SBS2003 box, i can get to "http://companyweb" but i can't get out to the Internet.

thanks.

Ahhhh.. Ok, you need to point your computers to your internal DNS server... Then you need to setup DNS request forwarding on your DNS server. You can do this by going into DNS, and then the properties of the server. Put your ISP's DNS servers in the spaces provided on the forwarders tab.

This way your computers will ask your internal DNS server for resolution, and if it doesn't know (Internet), it will forward the request to your ISP's DNS servers.

ASKER

i have the proper IP addresses in the forwarders and under DNS domains i have, "all other DNS domains" in the box. In addition, i have it listening to all IP addresses. still doesn't work - i can't get out to the Internet.

ok...

from a workstation, type "nslookup www.google.com" at a command prompt and see what happens.

ASKER

*** Can't find server name for address 223.125.125.95 (our SBS box): Non-existent domain
*** Default servers are not available
Server: UnKnown
Address: 223.125.125.95

DNS request timed out. timout was 2 second.
Non-authroitative answer:
Name: www.google.akadns.net
Addresses: 216.239.41.104, 216.239.41.99
Aliases: www.google.com

ok.. that's helpful... now can you post an "ipconfig /all" from your workstation?

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after adding the PTR record, the nslookup works just fine.

I still cannot get out to the Internet, however - i have to keep change the DNS value on the property page.

My ipconfig looks like this:

connection-specific dns suffix: my domain name
ip address: 223.125.125.86
subnet: 255.255.255.0
default gateway: 223.125.125.92 (this is the correct value)

try it with the "/all" switch...

Your DNS is working fine. You can resolve network names on the internet.

First of all, Thank you for the points... I will continue to help you resolve your problem regardless, though :-)

Thanks to Adam, we are getting very close to the root of your problems:

1. Why is your IP address 223.125.125.X? If that is the Internal IP address of your network, then you might be using a PUBLIC IP address for a Private IP, which might cause you a lot of grief.

2. have you tried ping www.google.com? If that does not work, try ping 66.102.7.147?

You are in the right track... Any changes you've made to the Internal DNS server isn't going to work unless your local workstations point to it as its primary DNS server.

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ASKER

no specific reason for the 223 naming convention.

ipconfig /all:

host name: it-admin
primary nds suffix: t.local
node type: unknown
ip routing enabled: yes
wins proxy enabled: yes
dns suffix search list: t.local (twice)

connection-specific dns suffix: t.local
description: 3Com 3C920 card
physical address - 00-08 etc...
dhcp enabled: yes
autoconfiguration enabled: yes
ip address: 223.125.125.86
subnet: 255.255.255.0
default gateway: 223.125.125.92
dhcp server: 223.125.125.95
dns servers: 223.125.125.95
prmary wins: 223.125.125.95
lease obtained: 9/3/2004
lease expires: 9/11/2004

ASKER

i want to thank both adam and infotrader.

it is now working - i can't get on to www.yahoo.com, but i can log onto www.microsoft.com and more importantly, experts-exchange.com.

I can get onto our Intranet as well (http://companyweb)

i can ping google.com.

i don't really care about www.yahoo.com, however.

You guys have been a great help and have solved something that has been nagging at me for quite a few days - thanks again.

nice.. check the file %system32%\drivers\etc\hosts."

if there is tons of yahoo redirections, then you caught caught with a nasty.

glad to hear you are up and running.

ASKER

the file looks clean (1 entry).

i get a DSN request timed out. timeout was 2 second.
*** request to <FQDN> timed-out

thanks.

that's strange.. try:

nslookup www.yahoo.com w.x.y.z

where w.x.y.z is the ip address of your ISP's DNS server.

ASKER

it works with the w.x.y.z.... what does this mean?

Do an "IPCONFIG /FLUSHDNS" on both the workstation you are trying on as well as your Windows DNS server and see if the problem is resolved.

That means your ISP can resolve www.yahoo.com but you can't, which means the name resolution request somehow isn't being forwarded to your ISP.

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ASKER

didn't help.

i then mapped my dns to our old sbs2000 machine (that one that we replaced) and that one was able to resolve. does the dns server on sbs2003 take a lot of processing power away from the unit? i would hope it could handle exchange, dhcp, and dns as one domain controller. we will only have 35 clients on it.

How much memoery do you have, and what CPU? DNS shouldn't use too much CPU power for 35 clients...

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ASKER

2 gig of memory.

P-3, 997 Mhz.

Try clearing your cache on your DNS server, by going into DNS and clicking Action -> Clear Cache

ASKER

still nothing.

does your forward lookup in DNS have any entries that make reference to yahoo? or perhaps check the hosts file on the DNS server.

ASKER

not that i can see - neither the old system or the new one.

that's nice of you thankyou. It is very strange though that you still cannot resolve the name of yahoo.com. I'm still trying to research where else to check. thanks again.