DNS 2

[TamedTech]

Hello Guys,

I'm looking for a little advice with regads to DNS.

Basicly i've setup a small DC running DHCP, and IIS6 which is hosting my companies website.

I have setup forwarding on my router so that from the outside of the world you can put my domain name into the URL and access the site like

http://www.mycompany.com.

Now, the issue i have it that my router is currently running DNS to resolve that domain to the IP, so when on the internal network, if i put in the domain name, i just get the config page of my router, and if i want to access the website i have to browse via the servers IP address.

Now this is causing a couple of issues which i wont expain, but i need some advice on how to move DNS onto my server from the router, and set its host records so when browsing to the domain name internaly it routes to the server rather than the router.

Many thanks,

Rob

 

[reynolwi]

Did you install active directory? All you should have to do is install DNS and follow the little prompts and it basically walks you thru it.You'll setup your foward lookup zone with the domain name and maybe a reverse lookup zone as well. If you installed active directory it should have already installed the DNS server on that server.

Wm. Reynolds
RRWDS | TxPSS

http://www.rrwds.com

http://www.txpubsafety.com

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[TamedTech]

Yeah i'm pretty sure that the DNS server is installed, i just need to run through the setup for it i think.

I have no real idea on how Forward and Reverse look-up zones work though, what is the differance between the two?

Thanks,

Rob

 

[NJForensics]

Good Morning-


First, your router is not (and should not) be responsible for resolving your domain name externally to an ip address. This is the responsibility of the authoritative nameservers for your domain. You need to have an A record setup with whoever controls DNS for your domain (TuCows, register.com, etc) to get abc123.com to xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx. Once this record is set up... you need to have your router pointing internal traffic on 80 (or 443 if you have an SSL) to the server internally that is servicing this website.
Secondly, the internal clients need to make sure they are using te DC as their primary DNS server. The router should not be hosting DNS requests from internal clients. Do not have the router running DHCP, if it is then clients are automatically getting the router (and any external DNS servers associated with it) as its DNS server.
If you really want to have the router running DHCP, then you need to go into each clients TCP/IP properties and staically assign the DC's internal IP address as the primary DNS server. Once this is all done, you should be able to get to the website interally.
If you can't, then you need to start looking in IIS to make sure the website is configured correctly, and possibly having to make an entry in the DNS server on your DC so it knows where to route the website traffic to.

Chris Clancy, EnCE
Miles Technologies
clancy@4miles.com

 

[TamedTech]

Thanks for that Chris,

I have it setup as you have suggested, and have done for several weeks now and access to the site is great from an external source.

I have the host records for the domain pointed to my DSL's IP, and then my router forwarding 80 onto the servers internal IP address and the site resolves as it should.

At the moment i have my DC running as DHCP but not as DNS, DNS is still being controled by the router, and my server is using the router and DNS, and issueing that on its DHCP lease so my clients are also using the router as DNS.

What i want to do is take DNS away from the router, and give it to my DC, that way i can have the server do all DNS resolutions for me, and this should solve the internal domain issue.

However, i've never successfully configured DNS before, last attempt i made was on a Win2K domain and for the life of me i couldnt get it working, so i'm just a little reluctant to take that step and was looking for advice on what i need to do to correctly confiure look-up zones and suchlike.

My DC's domain name is currently set to a .local address as this was reccomended by the setup wizard, is this likely to be an issue?

Thanks,

Rob

 

[NJForensics]

Rob-

Do you currently have DNS installed on the server? If not, then install it. If active directory is present already... then it will actually configure DNS for you. It will set up your forward lookup zones. By default it will not configure reverse lookup zones for you. The good news is that you do not need reverse lookup zones to browse to the website internally. Once you install DNS and have it configured... it should automatically set your DC as the primary DNS.

Chris Clancy, EnCE
Miles Technologies
clancy@4miles.com

 

[NJForensics]

Rob-

Sorry i didnt answer the last line of your previous post. No, setting your domain as abc123.local is fine. It will not cause any conflicts.

Chris Clancy, EnCE
Miles Technologies
clancy@4miles.com

 

[TamedTech]

Thanks for getting back to me NJ,

I worked for a couple of years as a net admin so i'm sure there isnt anything that i'll truggle with too much, I've just not built a server from scratch before.

I'll let you know how i get on, thanks a great deal for all your help though, its greatly appreciated.

Rob