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FosterThomasFlag for United States of America

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New website showing everywhere but Internal SBS 2003 Network

I recently launched our new website at www.fosterthomas.com, the site is hosted on hostgator.  I went to network solutions where we purchased our domain and changed the A records to point to the new website.  48 hours later and the site is live to everyone, EXCEPT the internal fosterthomas network.  

The old site shows up still.

I flushed the DNS cache

I found on dnsmgmt where you can change the www ip address, I did that and now instead of showing old site, it says www.fosterthomas.com cannot be found, however it is still working perfectly to the outside world.

Any ideas please!?
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Randy Downs
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Maybe this will help

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/926da9e8-9890-4e7b-a3fe-b1b1be92efb1/dnsmgmt-cannot-contact-the-dns-server

Also check that DC is not multi-homed.See below link for DNS setting on DC.
Best practices for DNS client settings on DC and domain members.
http://abhijitw.wordpress.com/2012/03/03/best-practices-for-dns-client-settings-on-domain-controller/
If still the issue persist post the ipconfig /all,dcdiag /q and repadmin /replsum output of both DC's.
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I don't understand how that has anything to do with my situation.  

The DNS is working fine for everything internally, Exchange, CRM, AD everythign is working fine.  It simply won't show the new website on our network.
It would seem that internal DNS is a problem for the website. Can you see the website internally if you use the ip? Can you ping the website with FQDN?
I can ping the website just fine as well as the IP address.  I am sorry  but I don't know what FQDN is.  

If in DNS management there is a section called Name Server (NS) that points towards network solutions because they have our MX records, then there is a section for www and info that I changed to the new ip address.  

I flushed the DNS on the server and on the user computers.  I can ping the new website both my address and ip address.  I've cleared the cache on server and user computers.
If I go to the IP address it takes me to a site not found Host Gator error, which is the Hosting provider for the new site.  Since it is a wordpress site, I can go just to the IP address like I can with a web address.  However I do know that the IP address is taking me to Host Gator.  

Using that same IP on my A records in network solutions, is what made the site live to the outside world.
Th ip on Host Gator may be a shared ip that has no default domain. Host Gator should have an ip that will take you directly to the site bypassing DNS.

A Wordpress site should still load like any other website. You may have to specify the actual page - index.php to get it to load.
I understand what you are saying but why would it work for everywhere using that IP address except inside our internally network at work.

I would understand if it didn't work on the outside world to, but that IP address in our A records makes it work fine.
I just called Host Gator and they confirmed that is the correct IP and it is routed to the correct folder based on the domain, there is nothing else I can add from their end to point to the site other than that IP.
Can you ping the ip from your internal network? Perhaps you have a routing issue.

Is this a new domain? Propagation delay maybe? If it's new the domain usually has a preview ip you can see the website from.
I can ping the ip address and the website itself both work.

It's not a new domain, we had one site up and I pointed my A records from the old site to the new site, the domain has been up for 15 years or so.

Propagation is supposed to take 24/28 hours and it has been over 72 hours, and the site works perfectly externally so it seems to be fully propagated.
Try Traceroute to the ip and/or the website.
from a client computer or the server?
Here's a similar post - http://hardforum.com/archive/index.php/t-1701946.html

In their case, a new ISP was involved and the problem eventually went away. Some things in the post might apply to you. Wireshark and/or NSLOOKUP may help.
Try it from a client since that's where you are having issues. If you can hit the website from a server you might want to compare routes.
I can't hit it from anywhere

attached is trace route I don't know how to read it exactly, I knwo the last IP address is correct and where the site is located.
Capture.JPG
Here is an NSLookup that points to the right spot as well.
capture1.JPG
OK something strange is going on. I can't access the site from here using your ip 192.232.218.213 but that's the ip I ping. Using the domain name it loads fine.
that's because the IP is to my Host Gator account, on that account there are a few sites.  Host Gator told me if a user goes to fosterthomas.com it routes them to that IP and then Host Gator knows they are trying to reach fosterthomas.com
Evidently this is a shared ip so getting to the site via the ip won't work either externally or internally.

Your trace route & nslookup are OK.
OK if this is not a shared ip you could ask them to make fosterthomas.com the default domain. That way the ip should work bot internally & externally to your LAN. Not a fix but a work around at least.

Maybe that would fix your local DNS too.
unfortunately I can't make it the default domain as the default domain as access by a lot of people and I can't change that up.
Should I restart the server, a service?  This is baffling to me.
I am referring to the default domain at that ip. That should be an issue for Host Gator. That presumes that you have exclusive use of the ip. As it is no domain is showing up when the ip is entered internal or external to your network.

If you are using PLESK this may help

http://support.hostgator.com/articles/plesk/plesk-10/ip-change-plesk-10

For Default Site: using the pull down menu choose the domain you want to have to be the default for this IP
so after being on HostGator for two hours, they added a public free proxy server and it is working fine internally, though very slow.  He said that told him, it is something to do with my router.

Any ideas where to go from here?

Thanks
I didn't see anything wrong with the trace route. I still think there should a default site with the ip. Basically your DNS is finding the ip but the ip doesn't work.

I'm not sure why external DNS works.

You could try rebooting your DNS server if there is only one. Do you have another web host you could try?
When he changed the proxy server it worked fine, which was internal right, just using a different proxy server?

I rebooted the DNS server and my other windows 2003 server which has nothing to do with DNS just incase.
He change your web browser to use a proxy right? If so that makes you go through another connection same as you would if your were outside your LAN.

I would ask Host Gator why they can't provide you with a default website for that ip. If it's a shared ip then they won't be able to do that.

If it were me, I would try another host like Go Daddy. You might be able to get hosting for as little as $1/month.  That would prove the issue is the host assuming Go Daddy worked.
I totally understand and would change hosts, but my boss doesn't want to hear that, that would involved the site going down and needing to propagate again.  

I remember this happening on this same network 4 years ago when we did our last website rework and for the life of me I cannot remember what we changed to fix it.  I know there is something, it hit me today that this happened last time.  Something I am overlooking somewhere.
What sort of Control Panel do you use for your hosting? PLESK? CPAnel?

Is this a virtual server? Is the ip exclusive to your server?
it is a Cpanel

I am not sure on the last question are you asking about the host of our website server or my internal server?
The ip question is about your web server. With shared hosting it's possible to use the same ip for many websites.
This should work but it reveals your user name so don't post it here. I just want to know if it works.

username is the user name you use to log on to Host Gator.

http://www.hostgator.com/gettingstarted.shtml

Web Site      http://192.168.10.98/~username/
Ill be back to my desk shortly but pretty sure that works
Maybe this will help

https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/28052793/Cannot-access-externally-hosted-company-website-from-internal-network.html

The fact that it works externally, I'm assuming with the www. appended then it is most likely only your Internal DNS that is failing.

If there is no reason for you to have the DNS zone created internally then remove  it.
Your DNS forwarders should be configured to point to the external DNS servers and this will resolve your lookups directly.

Also have a look at the hosts. (C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC\HOSTS. )file on the local machine to make sure that you don't have a static pointing to that site.
Don't forget to flush DNS after the changes.

ipconfig /flushdns
Assuming abc.co.uk is only their registered domain name and not also their internal AD domain name, removing its forward lookup zone from the server should have done the trick.  Did you make sure to flush the resolver cache (via ipconfig /flushdns) on the machine you were testing with after removing the zone?  If not, it likely still had the negative response cached and never sent a query anywhere.

If abc.co.uk is both their registered domain name and AD domain name, things get a bit more complicated.

I found that in the link you posted above and it I think that is where we get stuck.  FosterThomas in the name of the AD domain as well as our registered domain for our website.
I keep coming back to this on my SBS 2003 server and thinking something here has to be wrong, I dont know where else to look.  I checked the system32/drivers/etc/hosts and there was nothing in there.

This is so confusing and frustrating.
Capture.JPG
so the site is working internally now.  In the capture from my post above I deleted the info setting.  I have no idea why this worked but I thought worst case scenario I could readd it if something stopped working.  

Once I deleted that I flushed the DNS and the site was up and working.  I can't explain why that is the solution but it worked.  Very confusing.
actually next issue, it is showing up fine on my laptop and the server however other client computers are still saying cannot be found.

I deleted the browsing history on those computers as well as flushed the dns on the client computers but still says cannot be found.  Any ideas?
Good we are making progress. When you do an ipconfig /all on the working machines do they get their DNS from the same location as those having issues?

You also need to remove the proxy that Host Gator helped you setup on that machine.
We removed the proxy last night we tested it to see if it worked then removed the proxy.  

I am not sure how you want me to do the config /all, you want me to to do that on one of the machines that isn't working?

Right now I am sitting at my house, as I needed to do website edits and couldn't access it while at work.  However I am VPN'd in right now and the site is working fine which it wouldn't do yesterday if I was VPN'd in.  

I RWW'd into the server and the site is working fine but I RWW'd into two client machines and it is still down on those.
Maybe this will help

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc782459(v=ws.10).aspx

Using the Windows interface
Open DNS.

In the console tree, click the applicable DNS server.

Where?

DNS/applicable DNS server

On the Action menu, click Clear Cache.


or from command line

Dnscmd ServerName /clearcache
per computer or on the server?
Yes I would flush (ipconfig /flushdns) the machines that don't work and then compare their config (ipconfig /all) to those that do. Perhaps you are getting DNS from different machines.

Flushing the server may help too.
I flushed DNS on client computers, did the clear cache on server and deleted browsing history on client ocmputers and still not working.

what am I comparing in ipconfig /all?
Check that all the machines are using the same DNS servers. The server is likely using external DNS and static ip machines may do the same.
You may want to try stopping DNS and restarting
I can't do that till after business hours because that will stop email, wed access and other things right?
OK, maybe try something simple like rebooting one of the problem machines.
The Dns server listed for client computers in ipconfig /all is my SBS server
That includes the working laptop, correct?
Is the web host ip listed in any other DNS records?
Yes that includes laptop that works
Im not sure what you about ip in any other dns records
Expand your other folders like Reverse Lookup Zones
Baby plan and yes
OK so you don't have a dedicated ip. You could purchase one for this domain and that  would likely fix your problem. You are getting to the ip on Host Gator but that doesn't pull up a site.

Maybe your DNS restart will help.

When you accessed the site from the laptop it was connected via VPN, right? The server should have access to  outside DNS. Maybe VPN does too.
Sorry the computers do not have the same IPs I answered wrong.  

Yes I was connected via VPN but that didnt work yesterday and did today.  Same with server
It is working on my other windows server now its a file server and houses our trend and crm databses.  Its a windows server 2003 OS
OK getting rid of the info record helped. Do the servers get their DNS from the local DNS server exclusively or do they hit an outside DNS server too.

Check ipconfig /all & nslookup on failing & working machines.
I assume you changed the www A record on your registrar. Did you have another website prior to that? Internally maybe?

I went to network solutions where we purchased our domain and changed the A records to point to the new website.
And today its not working amywherr again. Ahhhhhhhhh

yes I changed the www at the registra.  I am so confused.
Anywhere internally.  Still fine externally.   I changed nothing yesterday
I might be on to something here, I was playing around with the ping function in cmd

I can ping www.fosterthomas.com but not fosterthomas.com, however I can ping both www.google.com and google.com

and when I type in www.fosterthomas.com into my browser it truncates it into fosterthomas.com
I have talked to Network Solutions, HostGator and our ISP today and they all are telling me it is an internal DNS setting somewhere.

I have no idea where else to look, I am new to SBS but from what I read the only real settings are in DNSMGMT.  

Anyone else have any ideas?
fosterthomas.com is your domain. What page are you getting when you try to open your website. Is it Host Gator? Do you have IIS running?
It looks like you have a re-direct on your site that strips off the www. It's probably an .htaccess file like the following. You can comment out the section to disable that.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4192948/remove-www-site-wide-force-https-on-certain-directories-and-http-on-the-rest



# remove www from host
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.(.+)
RewriteCond %{HTTPS}s/%1 ^(on(s)|offs)/(.+)
RewriteRule ^ http%2://%3%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]

See if this helps your DNS

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324260

How to Create a DNS Entry for the Web Server

Create an alias or CNAME record for the DNS server on which you configured IIS. This step makes sure that external host computers can connect to your Web server by using the "www" host name. To do this, follow these steps:

Open the DNS snap-in. To do this, click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click DNS.

Under DNS, expand Host name (where Host name is the host name of the DNS server).

Expand Forward Lookup Zones.

Under Forward Lookup Zones, right-click the zone that you want (for example, domain_name.com), and then click New Alias (CNAME).

In the Alias name box, type www.

In the Fully qualified name for target host box, type the fully qualified host name of the DNS server on which IIS is installed. For example, type dns.domain_name.com, and then click OK.
See if this helps your DNS

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324260


How to Create a DNS Entry for the Web Server

Create an alias or CNAME record for the DNS server on which you configured IIS. This step makes sure that external host computers can connect to your Web server by using the "www" host name. To do this, follow these steps:

Open the DNS snap-in. To do this, click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click DNS.

Under DNS, expand Host name (where Host name is the host name of the DNS server).

Expand Forward Lookup Zones.

Under Forward Lookup Zones, right-click the zone that you want (for example, domain_name.com), and then click New Alias (CNAME).

In the Alias name box, type www.

In the Fully qualified name for target host box, type the fully qualified host name of the DNS server on which IIS is installed. For example, type dns.domain_name.com, and then click OK.

I thought of this Cname this morning, so I went to DNSMGMT on SBS 2003 and added a CName for * instead of www that points to www.fosterthomas.com and it is working server again but no other computers.

I then went into the
cname.JPG
tcp.JPG
Note that the comment above refers to IIS since it thinks you are adding your own web server on a local M$ machine.

You might ask Host Gator what server you should use for the alias. It's probably the server name in your CPanel
sorry hit submit by accident.  So then went into TCP on my laptop and changed the DNS servers to the public 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 and the site is working fine.

So it is something with the DNS of server?
Yes the problem is that fosterthomas.com is your server so it expects the subdomain www.fosterthomas.com to be on your network. One work around is to installl IIS & redirect the www to the external site.

Your server probably has access to the external DNS so sometimes it hits the external site.
Now that you have the Cname try adding a A record for www with the ip of the external site.
it is a SBS 2003 server so IIS is installed

I have a a record already created to the IP.  I did that when I created the CName.  Then I flushed the DNS and still nothing.
Here is what DNSMGMT looks like now, that is correct right?
arecord.JPG
well I messed up in the A record above I hit enter to quick and pointed the site to 192.232.218.0 instead of .213 and a website for thinkpaper came up.  I thought I fixed it first but now it says www.fosterthomas.com and thinkpaper website's came up.  

changed it back, flushed dns and site is still dead.
You have 192.232.218.0 as the parent in your screenshot. Try deleting that record
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I had to add *.fosterthomas.com as a cname, I figured the solution out on my own