Ability to Have Windows NIC Use Specific DNS Server for Preset External Website Addresses?
Is it possible to hard set the NIC settings on a Windows computer so that it uses a defined external DNS server when resolving only a set of specific external website addresses? Such that if someone on that machine browses to experts-exchange.com it uses a Google Public DNS server 8.8.8.8 to resolve that hostname
There are custom cloud hosted DNS servers if you are looking to redirect to a specify address. Or if you already have one you can do this by opening up the network connections and going to IPV4 (assuming that is what you use) and enter it in manually. If you don't you can set one up at http://www.rackspace.com/cloud/dns/ <- for instance.
Conditional Forwarders is definitely the way to go. It applies globally
ASKER
I only need to do it for this one Windows computer and maybe 2-3 external websites. Is there a way to easily do this on the one computer's NIC?
Not really, unless you want to hard code the site IP addresses in your host file. Then it bypasses DNS altogether.
C:\Windows\System32\driver
C:\Windows\System32\driver
ASKER
Was looking to avoid HOSTS as the external website does change
There is no way to configure the DNS client on a Windows machine to use a different DNS server depending on what resource it is trying to reach. However, as others have stated, you can configure a DNS server to use different resources (e.g. by using conditional forwarders, hosting it's own copy of the zone, etc.) when it is trying to resolve a query on behalf of a client.
ASKER
How would a conditional forwarder be setup on that Windows computer then to serve requests only for that computer out to an external DNS server?
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ASKER
This Windows computer has the DNS Server service installed
The only options I see here, if you only want it to affect this single computer, are:
- use HOSTS file
- set up a DNS server on the local machine, configure the machine to use itself as a DNS server, and then configure the DNS server as needed (way more work than I would want to do, and I don't have any particular recommendations for DNS software).
Perhaps if you describe the problem you're trying to solve there might be a better suggestion.
- use HOSTS file
- set up a DNS server on the local machine, configure the machine to use itself as a DNS server, and then configure the DNS server as needed (way more work than I would want to do, and I don't have any particular recommendations for DNS software).
Perhaps if you describe the problem you're trying to solve there might be a better suggestion.
Just saw your post that this machine has DNS server installed.
In that case, the machine (NIC settings) has to point to itself for DNS. Here's a link to MS with instructions on how to set up a conditional forwarder.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc794735(v=ws.10).aspx
In that case, the machine (NIC settings) has to point to itself for DNS. Here's a link to MS with instructions on how to set up a conditional forwarder.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc794735(v=ws.10).aspx
OK, you need to open DNS under administrative tools and take a look here
http://technet.microsoft.c
http://technet.microsoft.c
Please read the following link: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc782142(v=ws.10).aspx