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saylestock

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Use CNAME for web browsing

I am trying to use a CNAME on and internal DNS to point to an external FQDN.  Currently I have a internal CNAME setup as sp.example1.com that points to www.internet.com.  If I open a command prompt and ping sp.example1.com, it says it is pinging www.internet.com and pings the appropriate IP address.  So theoritically it is working.  However, in a web browser, if I try to go to sp.example1.com I get page cannont be displayed.

We are not using a proxy server and are NATing directly out the firewall.

Does a web browser treat CNAME's differently and what do I need to do to get it to work properly?

Any help is appreciated.
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adamdrayer
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Is www.internet.com a commercially hosted website like earthlink, or interland?

do this trick...  at a dos prompt, type "nslook www.internet.com" and get the first IP address.  Then type the IP address into the webbrowser like so... http://w.x.y.z/

If if doesn't work than the site is not accesible unless the browser specifically requests that FQDN.  it has to do with the way that the site hosts multiple websites on the same IP addess and uses the requesting FQDN to handle the delivery of the proper pages.
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saylestock

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Thanks,

www.internet.com is provided by a web hosting service.  I did you suggestions and with the IP addrress it basically goes nowhere.  So it is obviously it must be based on name.

So in this circumstnace, am I basically screwed and there are no work arounds?
I am not aware of any. but don't close the question yet, i'll look around and see what i can find
Do you use the browser on the server which is dns, or on other machine? If it's another machine, the dns is not configured corectly, because a cname is a name perfectly valid for dns. Also, verify the default gateway on the machine with the browser, seems that it's trying to find the ip address in the local network.

A better description of the network will help.
I don't think he's able to connect to the website using the IP address.  Its probably not a name resolution error.  Especially since ICMP works.

Ive had hosting companies verify that you need to connect to them using the proper requesting domain name.

I get the same result on the DNS server or a desktop.  Note that I can ping using sp.example1.com and it resolved to www.internet.com and ping the correct IP address.  In the web browser...it goes nowhere.  Probabbly becasue the hosting site is using one IP address to host multiple sites.  www.internet.com is not in our DNS, so it is being resolved through the root hints on our DNS server.
Do a tracert sp.example1.com. Can you connect directly to www.internet.com?
yes, got there in 15 hops.
In Internet explorer/Tools/Internet Options/Connections/Lan settings do you have any proxy configured?
No.  Original post noted no proxy.  NATing direcly out to the Internet.
I saw but I wanted to be sure. I understand you cannot connect nor by IP address. Let's try an experiment, create another cname for www.google.com and test it.
I have created a test CNAME to my own personal web site at my house and it works perfectly.
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TheDefiant

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