DNS pointing a subdomain of ours to another's server
A user started a pilot site and hosted it with the web developer that created the site. In order to lend credibility to the site, they wanted to call it PILOT.OURDOMAIN.ORG, so I set up an A record on our authoritative DNS for that subdomain to point to their IP address. It works fine for people who aren't behind our firewall, but when we try to go there from within our network, we get a "site not found" error. Running 2003 server as our internal DNS server ( which is why I ask it in this area - If I'm wrong please let me know where ). I'm thinking I need to set up something on our internal DNS, but not really sure how to proceed. Maybe the fact that it is a "subdomain" of ours is messing with the resolution? I'm a little sketchy when it comes to specifics of DNS servers.... In looking at our internal DNS, I see some "forward lookup zones" and am wondering if I should add one for PILOT.OURDOMAIN.ORG? And how? Trouble is, if I simply point the subdomain name to an IP address, they might just get the default page of that server ( the guy at the web developer tells me they're using Apache to redirect ) When I just type in the IP in a browser, I get a different site than the one I should for the IP they gave me to enter into our authoritative DNS, and different from the one people get who are outside our firewall and type in PILOT.OURDOMAIN.ORG.
It's a confusing scenario....a bandaid on a workaround to make the marketing people happy.
It's a confusing scenario....a bandaid on a workaround to make the marketing people happy.
ASKER
Our entire internal network is behind the firewall, so that's not really possible.
ASKER
I think I figured it out. I added a host (A) record on our internal DNS for PILOT on OURDOMAIN.ORG pointing to the IP address of the offsite server, and it seems to work now. I'm not going to pretend I understand exactly why it works this way, and not when I simply enter the IP address in a browser, but that wasn't really the question.
Thanks.
Thanks.
This means that PILOT isn't a subdomain name, its just a computer name. So, OURDOMAIN.ORG is the domain name... This domain name is used both internally and externally on the internet.
www.ourdomain.org needs to resolve to an IP address on the internet (if you want people from inside your network and from anywhere on the internet to access it.
WWW = IP address of web server on internet
Just like PILOT must be related to a public IP address on the internet....
However, because you internal domain name is identicle to the registered internet domain name, your internal network will not use the DNS settings available on the internet... So, you must create a HOST record or "A" record on your local DNS server for every server in the ourdomain.org namespace. So PILOT = xx.xx.xx.xx <-- the IP of the offsite webserver.
In general, it is recommended that you don't name your internal windows domain the same as your registered internet domain name. If you chose a different name (like ourdomain.local), you would not have this problem...
www.ourdomain.org needs to resolve to an IP address on the internet (if you want people from inside your network and from anywhere on the internet to access it.
WWW = IP address of web server on internet
Just like PILOT must be related to a public IP address on the internet....
However, because you internal domain name is identicle to the registered internet domain name, your internal network will not use the DNS settings available on the internet... So, you must create a HOST record or "A" record on your local DNS server for every server in the ourdomain.org namespace. So PILOT = xx.xx.xx.xx <-- the IP of the offsite webserver.
In general, it is recommended that you don't name your internal windows domain the same as your registered internet domain name. If you chose a different name (like ourdomain.local), you would not have this problem...
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If not, try that first.
If it works well without the firewall...I would look at the Firewall first.
In other words, before going through a reconfiguration...remove, one at a time, any device that could possibly be interferring.