dns on lan side of router

[cyranoses]

For many years I have run two webs sites off two computers. I only have one ip address so I have dns configured on one of my computers to make sure the correct web site is served to the client. Everything worked fine until I switched to a new wireless router so that one of my computers can be upstairs from the other. The router(netgear wgt624) will not allow any http requests through unless I configure port forwarding. Only one server can be designated so I chose the one with the dns server thinking all things would work as before. No such luck. The second web site cannot be seen outside the lan, though all computers on the lan can see it. Is there a workaround from within dns or iis?

When an http request comes in to the router and is sent to the designated ip what happens to it there? Does it use the local dns server at all. It seems like if the request ever got to my dns server, then the server would send it on to the other computer. Am I wrong in thinking this?

 

[BigShyBear]

The description of your network is not clear. From what I read, the network (and DNS) is working correctly now.
Is the Netgear at the edge of your network, or in the middle?
If it's in the middle, try using it as a bridge.

 

[cyranoses]

The router is my default gateway to the internet. 2 machines on network run windows 2000 web servers. I can browse to both web sites from within the network. I can browse to one or the other from the lan - depending upon how I set port forwarding for http requests in the router. The router will only let me forward http requests to one computer ip.

This is how I set things up. Each machine gets static ip manually assigned. In dns (on one of the web servers) I created 2 forward lookup zones. I placed Host (A) records so that one name is assigned to 192.168.2.4 (virtualvb.com) and the other to 192.168.2.3(numberonecommunity.com). The router is set for port forwarding of http requests to 192.168.2.3(numberonecommunity.com).
Questions:
1. What happens to a wan request for virtualvb.com after it comes in the default gateway (netgear router) and gets forwarded to 192.168.2.3?

2. Does the request first go to iis server on the 2.3 machine or does it go to the dns server(also on 2.3 machine)?

3.Is any effort made to query dns at this time?

 

[BigShyBear]

From inside the network both web sites should work.
From inside the network, when you try to browse either site by typing in the URL (e.g. VIRTUALVB.COM), the web browser passes a DNS query to the TCP/IP stack. The TCP/IP stack then queries the DNS server address that has been configured as the primary DNS server requesting the IP address associated with that URL. The DNS server returns the IP address for the A record in the zone database. For virtualvb.com the A record should be configured as 192.168.2.4, for numberonecommunity.com the A record should be configured as 192.168.2.3. For inside queries, the Netgear router never gets involved.
For outside queries things start getting interesting. Based on what I see that you have, you need to make changes, and you have two paths.
Path 1. Add a second IP address, and possibly a second router forwarding to 192.168.2.4. Change the DNS record at register.com for virtualdb.com to this new IP address.
Path 2.
Move both web sites to 192.168.2.3. Make the virtualdb.com web site a host headers web site. A web server can provide multiple web sites if it can differentiate which site the query is asking for. The web server can differentiate on IP address, port, or the actual URL in the query. This last bit is extremely common, and its called host headers. (you'll need to go back and change your inside A records for virtualdb.com to 192.168.2.3)
Check

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;190008

 

[cyranoses]

Thanks, I chose path 2 and now have both web sites on one server.