We have a small office network comprising a server running SBS2003, about seven various XP clients, a broadband router, hub etc. We're running a domain based network which until last Friday seemed to work just fine. On Friday it went completely t*ts up for no apparent reason, server went offline on all clients and basically nothing worked. Initially suspected the router as it is our DHCP server but unfortunately it was not that simple. Managed to get a basic network running by connecting through hub only and settinig static IPs to all computers, finally got a network running but at the moment we have the following problem with DNS. Internet is working fine but when we try to view our internet website which has the same name as our .local domain, the address cant be resolved and returns page not found ie. our local domain is domain.local and our website is domain.co.uk . Our web domain is fine from any other connection to the internet so I think there is some link to the fact it is also our .local domain. Have I set something wrong here, on the server I have set the DNS server to the servers IP address. I would appreciate any novice level help here! I am no network expert but do undersatnd some basic IP,DNS,DHCP subjects.
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Web domain name wont resolve 1
- Thread starter nflutter
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ShackDaddy
MIS
Look on your DNS server and see if a forward lookup zone was created for yourdomain.co.uk. Normally the default install only would have a domain for yourdomain.local, but you may have created another one for the external site. And if it exists, it's probably either unpopulated or populated with the wrong records.
If you delete that zone, then your clients will be forced to resolve the DNS name for your website through outside DNS records, which would be a GOOD thing at this point. Alternately, you can populate the zone with records that are actually correct.
Before you do anything though, pull up a command line and ping your website. What's the IP address that it tries to use, or does it say that the name can't be resolved? If the latter, then you probably have an empty zone for yourdomain.co.uk configured on your server. If it gives you an IP address, is it an internal address, or is it the proper one on the outside? Compare that with the results that you get from an outside client doing the same ping.
If the IP you get when resolving from the inside is different than what someone gets on the outside, then you have a bad record on the zone in your local DNS. Either fix it or delete the zone, as I mentioned above. You may not want to delete the zone if you are using it to host other records that you care about.
Let us know what you figure out,
ShackDaddy
If you delete that zone, then your clients will be forced to resolve the DNS name for your website through outside DNS records, which would be a GOOD thing at this point. Alternately, you can populate the zone with records that are actually correct.
Before you do anything though, pull up a command line and ping your website. What's the IP address that it tries to use, or does it say that the name can't be resolved? If the latter, then you probably have an empty zone for yourdomain.co.uk configured on your server. If it gives you an IP address, is it an internal address, or is it the proper one on the outside? Compare that with the results that you get from an outside client doing the same ping.
If the IP you get when resolving from the inside is different than what someone gets on the outside, then you have a bad record on the zone in your local DNS. Either fix it or delete the zone, as I mentioned above. You may not want to delete the zone if you are using it to host other records that you care about.
Let us know what you figure out,
ShackDaddy
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couldn't wait so I went back to work tonight and tried it, there was a zone setup for my .co.uk domain. I tried pinging my website but the address couldn't be resolved so I deleted the zone and it all works fine now. I say fine, the website problem is OK now but still have major problems with the network in general, clients keep losing their connection to the server and have to keep logging back on to use all the resources. I think a few more posts should do the trick! Thanks for your help on this one
ShackDaddy
MIS
Here's a summary of how things should be configured at the office:
- Server pointed at itself for DNS
- Server configured with forwarders. Use your ISP's DNS servers.
- All clients pointed at server for DNS
- Clients not configured with any other DNS suffix (don't configure them to use the .co.uk suffix.
- If you have DHCP set, configure DNS to allow dynamic updates
Use the DNS scope options to help you point clients to the server for DNS. If you have older clients or you want to do overkill, install the WINS service on the server and configure all clients and the server to point at the server for WINS.
If things are all set up this way and you still have connection dropping problems, I would look at the network layer and perhaps try putting your clients and server on another switch.
ShackDaddy
- Server pointed at itself for DNS
- Server configured with forwarders. Use your ISP's DNS servers.
- All clients pointed at server for DNS
- Clients not configured with any other DNS suffix (don't configure them to use the .co.uk suffix.
- If you have DHCP set, configure DNS to allow dynamic updates
Use the DNS scope options to help you point clients to the server for DNS. If you have older clients or you want to do overkill, install the WINS service on the server and configure all clients and the server to point at the server for WINS.
If things are all set up this way and you still have connection dropping problems, I would look at the network layer and perhaps try putting your clients and server on another switch.
ShackDaddy
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