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Why does my internal web page work for some user only part of the time?

We moved our intranet site from an old 2003 server to a 2012 R2 server. It was rebuilt on the new server and both ran simultaneously until we cut over to the new server. No problems were encountered during testing. Now, 2 - 5 users have trouble accessing part of the web site on a regular basis. I'm one of them. It will work fine one day, then I cannot log in the next morning. Then 15 minutes later it works for me again. It may or may not work when I need to get back in later in the day. Usually, if I wait around 15 minutes and try again, it will work. nothing I do in the mean time will make it work any faster. Rebooting, Clearing the cache, and trying different browsers doesn't make it work any faster. I'm convinced it's some setting on the server, but I'm not the web person here. She has not seen the problem herself, so it's not real to her yet.

Michael Hughett

Are you using an IP address or server name to get to the site?
If you only use the IP address and everything works it might be a DNS issue.
When you say it doesn't work do you get an error page or is it just blank?

akdit1

ASKER

our main page is www.xxx.yyy. This page always works. The page that I'm having trouble with is at www.ZZZ.xxx.yyy. It's on the same server, just a different section and different web site on IIS. I don't know how to go directly to that page via IP address only. I can use the server's IP address or the DNS name to go directly to our main intranet site.

The error message varies depending on the browser. In IE, it's "This page can't be displayed".

I'm wondering if it might be a domain name issue. I didn't think about it until I started explaining it here. Our domain name is xxx.yyy. If I use NSLOOKUP for this, I get a list of my DC's. We added the WWW.xxx.yyy in DNS because it will try to go to one of our Domain Controllers if I just type in xxx.yyy. I hope this additional info helps resolve this issue.

Thanks

Michael Hughett

What happens if you type this in address bar? www.xxx.yyy/zzz instead? Because usually when you add on to the front of the domain you are telling it to go to another server.

akdit1

ASKER

If I go to www.xxx.yyy/zzz, I get - 404 - File or directory not found

This is our DNS list, and although it worked fine for a couple of months, I'm not sure if this is the best way to do it.
xxx.yyy (Primary Domain)
zzz.xxx.yyy (zzz intranet without the WWW prefix that used to work fine) Our Only Web Server IP
WWW.xxx.yyy (Intranet) Our Only Web Server IP (this always works)
WWW.zzz.xxx.yyy (zzz intranet) Our Only Web Server IP (this never worked)

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David Johnson, CD

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akdit1

ASKER

Sorry for the delayed response. I've been out sick. I have added the CNAME, but because the problem is intermittent, I cannot confirm if this has resolved the issue. If I don't have any more reports of this problem in the next 48 hours, I'll consider it resolved. Thanks for the comments.

akdit1

ASKER

Page not found error popped up again today. The CNAME didn't help. Any other suggestions.

akdit1

ASKER

I was connected to the problematic page this morning and it was working. I refreshed the page (via the refresh button in IE), and I get the error page. "This page can't be displayed"
No server reboots, not PC reboot, no Cashe dump.

Another user has the same network settings I do. It works fine for her.
SO...
I ping www.xxx.yyy and get a response from the server's IP (x.x.x.200)
I ping zzz.xxx.yyy and my computer doesn't know what server that is
She pings www.xxx.yyy and gets a response from the server's IP (x.x.x.200)
She pings zzz.xxx.yyy and gets a response from the server's IP (x.x.x.200)

I add "x.x.x.200 zzz.xxx.yyy" to my pc's host file and it works

I checked right before saving the changes and the page could not be found. I saved and checked the page, and now it works. I removed the server from the host file and it still works (for now). It may have something to do with what happens when I log off/on or when I lock my computer. I guess it's possibly something in a GPO. I haven't drilled that far into it yet.

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akdit1

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akdit1

ASKER

The problem wasn't resolved until I found the DNS replication issue. I appreciate the help. The CNAME suggestion did not fix the problem, it is just a simpler solution that what was in place. Even with the CNAME in place, the web site continued to fail to display until I fixed the DNS replication issue.