DNS entry to redirect to a different server and port?

[CorruptedLogic]

So i'm hoping this is super easy for one of you fine DNS gurus. I have an internal website (helpdesk) that resides on a server (server1) on port 8080, my question is this. Can i configure DNS so that each time a local user on teh network types "helpdesk" into their web browser, they get redirected the

http://server1:8080

?

TIA...

CCNA, CCDP, Net+, A+
Work Smarter, Not Harder....
This was supposed to be the future.....Where is my JetPack?!

 

[elgrandeperro]

DNS can only get you to map helpdesk to the IP or name of server1.

There would be 2 options at this point. If you didn't care if the user saw the :8080, you simply use a redirector (either a rewrite rule or metarefresh page) to redirect them to the correct server.
Good thing here is that the redirector only needs to be up to redirect the bare "helpdesk" to http:server1:8080/...

Now there are techniques to get helpdesk port 80 traffic to server1 port 8080, using port translation like linux/iptables or running a reverse proxy or a loadbalancer front end. This hides the 8080 but you are inserting another level of complexity.


eugene

 

[CorruptedLogic]

Thanks for the info, could you maybe expand a little on the redirector? i could give a hoot if the user sees the :8080, but getting them to actualyl type it is proving a chore!
btw, this is all being done with 2003 servers.

thanks again!

CCNA, CCDP, Net+, A+
Work Smarter, Not Harder....
This was supposed to be the future.....Where is my JetPack?!

 

[elgrandeperro]

There are 2 easy redirectors I am aware of. Both would require a webserver listening on port 80, but not necessarily server1 in your case. Although the level of effort is low, compare it to the work to convert your web site to use port 80.

The first is simply a metarefresh page. You put up a web server with a single page that redirects.

You can set the timeout to 0 so it just shoots them over and you don't need all the html around it, I think you can just use the META line and it will work fine.

An example:

http://www.pageresource.com/html/metref.htm

so like one page with this in it:

<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;url=http://server1.yourdomain.com:8080/index.html">

The second way is to use rewrite or redirect rules (this is apache but other web servers have the same concept. Since you don't have to have any particular logic, redirect would work fine, here is an example:

http://www.cgi-interactive-uk.com/apache_redirect_directive.html

and you can use RedirectMatch to match everything.

eugene