Resolving URL's from Internal Web Servers!!!

[marko2002]

Hi Guys,

Here's the problem I'm having at the moment . . .

I have a few web servers which I host myself, let's say they are SERVER1 & SERVER2. Server1 is for my main web site and Server2 is hosting SharePoint services. My LAN is set up as my internet domain (i.e. domain.com) which host's all the servers although my external DNS is managed through UKNics.

For external users to access my Sharepoint server (running on port 8082) I have set up a 'webforwarder' through my external DNS provider (UKNics) so that users typing

http://sharepoint.domain.com

get resolved to

http://domain.com:8082.

This works great for external users, although internal users (i.e. me!) have still to type

http://servername:8082.

There obviously is a way to use ONE URL for both internal and external users although I'm damned if I can get a definitive answer anywhere!!!.

Hope you can help guys.

Cheers

Marko

 

[NetIntruder]

set up an "CName" Record on your internal DNS so that sharepoint.domain.com points to server:8082

Hope this helps.

~Intruder~

"The Less You Do, The Less Can Go Wrong"

 

[marko2002]

Thanks for your reply NetIntruder.

I might be missing something here (please correct me if I'm wrong), but I didn't think this was possible. I'm familiar with the alias record to the point of using an alias such as server2>alias>sharepoint to resolve sharepoint.domain.com to server2.domain.com although I can't see how I can alias server2 to resolve itself to something like server2.domain.com:8082 or sharepoint.domain.com:8082 internally.

I created an alias of sharepoint.domain.com and manually typed the FQDN as server2.domain.com:8082 although this still doesn't resolve!. Please let me know if I am doing something wrong or there is more to setting up an alias such as this.

many thanks

marko

 

[Shadow97]

ok...i'll have a stab at it hehe...have you tried adding a host header name on your internal webserver (say server2.domain.com on port 8082) then referencing it in your internal dns?..ensure your local clients resolve dns internally before they resolve externally...

sorry if this sounds funny but its been a long day

 

[marko2002]

Hi Shadow97 thanx 4 reply.

I'm not familiar with host headers and wouldn't like to tamper with something I know little about. If you could advise further on this method I would be most grateful.

many thanx

Marko

 

[Shadow97]

ok..i'm gonna take a punt and assume you're running IIS 5.0 (win2000)...try reading this and see if it's what you're after...

http://www.iisfaq.com/Default.aspx?tabid=2797

 

[marko2002]

thanx shadow97, I'm actually running IIS6 Windows 2003, but I'll take a look at the article anyway to see if it can be applied.

thanx again

marko

 

[marko2002]

I did attempt to follow the instructions on setting up such a method although unfortunately for my purposes I couldn't make it applicable!.

In my IIS I have the following:
Default Web Site
Microsoft Sharepoint Administration
Sharepoint Central Administration

It's the Default Web Site which is running on port 8082 and the only way I can possibly use the URL sharepoint.domain.com is by defaulting the port back to 80 as even experimenting with the suggested article partly solves one problem, but then create another for external users!. Full marks though shadow97 for your suggestion and if you feel I've maybe overlooked or misconfigured something please let me know.

Cheers

Marko

 

[NetIntruder]

when you ping the URL from internal after setting the CNAME record, did it resolve to the CNAME alias or to the Internet Address? You may need to flush out your DNS cache on the machine you are doing this from first...

I've done this on my network (never to a specific port, however) with great success.

Let me know!

~Intruder~

"The Less You Do, The Less Can Go Wrong"

 

[marko2002]

Hi again NetIntruder,

I have already set up an Alias for my host (remember these servers are on my internal LAN) so that sharepoint.domain.com points to server2.domain.com and if I were running my SharePoint on port 80 I'de be singing and dancing, although the problem is that the SharePoint site has to run on a port other than 80 cause server1 runs my main web server and so when people type my domain.com externally, it goes through to my main web server without fuss. As for my SharePoint server, I've opened port 8082 on my router to point to server2 and used my external DNS provider to set up a forwarder so any requests to sharepoint.domain.com were resolved to domain.com:8082.

Internally, typing sharepoint.domain.com will obiously just time out as it is looking for port 80 rather than 8081!.

 

[Shadow97]

Hiya again

Try making a new website and reconfiguring it (don't use the default one)...

 

[marko2002]

Arrgggghhhhhhh!!!!!!!!

Ok, I tried creating a new site and tried everything I could think of to associate this new site with the SharePoint directory, but alas it fails everytime! I disabled the Default Web Site, but this is required for SharePoint (or at least it doesn't say you are able to create an alternative site for it and most references in SharePoint documentation talks about the Default site).

Even when I create a new site for SharePoint, I then have to configure this in much the same way as the Default Web Site is configured if it is to stand a chance of working thus somewhat defeating the whole purpose of the excercise!.

I may have to concead on this one guys and revert to my original set of using

http://sharepoint.domain.com

for external users and

http://sharepoint.domain.com:8082

for internal users although this is still not the best solution as anyone posting an article externally may give reference to a URL such as

http://sharepoint.domain.com/testpost.aspx

whereas internal users would have to edit this to make it

http://sharepoint.domain.com:8082/testpost.aspx

- and we all know that users WILL NOT do this but instead scratch their heads and abandon the site outright!.

If you guys can offer any further advice please keep it coming as I am willing to try anything - and thanx a million for your help so far.

Cheers

Marko