Hi all,

is it possible to set up my DNS server (W2K) on my .local domain so that
when clients type only "sitename" in a browser (no suffixes or anything)
the server resolves it to an IP address that isn't in the .local domain?

Kind regards

"puzzled newbie" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:eshirr$h5a$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi all,
>
> is it possible to set up my DNS server (W2K) on my .local domain so that
> when clients type only "sitename" in a browser (no suffixes or anything)
> the server resolves it to an IP address that isn't in the .local domain?

It's possible but it (probably) doesn't make much sense to do so.

(Create a zone name "sitename" -- create an A record with BLANK name
[i.e., same as parent] and give it the IP address you wish.)

You could probably stick this name in your own zone, since a machine will
(normally) append its own domain name.


--
Herb Martin, MCSE, MVP
http://www.LearnQuick.Com
(phone on web site)

Herb Martin skrev:
> "puzzled newbie" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:eshirr$h5a$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Hi all,
>>
>> is it possible to set up my DNS server (W2K) on my .local domain so that
>> when clients type only "sitename" in a browser (no suffixes or anything)
>> the server resolves it to an IP address that isn't in the .local domain?
>
> It's possible but it (probably) doesn't make much sense to do so.
>
> (Create a zone name "sitename" -- create an A record with BLANK name
> [i.e., same as parent] and give it the IP address you wish.)
>
> You could probably stick this name in your own zone, since a machine will
> (normally) append its own domain name.
>
>

Yes, that's what I thought - but I have tried both, and no luck.
The IP address is pingable, and the service on it works fine if the IP
address is used, but the powers that be insists that the IP shouldn't be
used.

"puzzled newbie" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:esjqpc$23i$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Herb Martin skrev:
>> "puzzled newbie" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:eshirr$h5a$(E-Mail Removed)...
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> is it possible to set up my DNS server (W2K) on my .local domain so that
>>> when clients type only "sitename" in a browser (no suffixes or anything)
>>> the server resolves it to an IP address that isn't in the .local domain?
>>
>> It's possible but it (probably) doesn't make much sense to do so.
>>
>> (Create a zone name "sitename" -- create an A record with BLANK name
>> [i.e., same as parent] and give it the IP address you wish.)
>>
>> You could probably stick this name in your own zone, since a machine will
>> (normally) append its own domain name.
>>
>>
>
> Yes, that's what I thought - but I have tried both, and no luck.

Show the results of an NSLookup against your specific DNS server where
you added the record:

nslookup -time=10 sitename. IP.Address.DNS.Server
nslookup -time=10 sitename.domain.com IP.Address.DNS.Server
nslookup -time=10 -q=soa sitename. IP.Address.DNS.Server
nslookup -time=10 -q=soa sitename.domain.com IP.Address.DNS.Server

I put a "." at the end of the "sitename." to terminate it -- try it with and
without
it.

IF these don't work you have setup the records incorrectly.


> The IP address is pingable, and the service on it works fine if the IP
> address is used, but the powers that be insists that the IP shouldn't be
> used.

Generally you should have DNS names for most things, so nothing wrong
with that.


--
Herb Martin, MCSE, MVP
http://www.LearnQuick.Com
(phone on web site)

Herb Martin skrev:
> "puzzled newbie" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:esjqpc$23i$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Herb Martin skrev:
>>> "puzzled newbie" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>>> news:eshirr$h5a$(E-Mail Removed)...
>>>> Hi all,
>>>>
>>>> is it possible to set up my DNS server (W2K) on my .local domain so that
>>>> when clients type only "sitename" in a browser (no suffixes or anything)
>>>> the server resolves it to an IP address that isn't in the .local domain?
>>> It's possible but it (probably) doesn't make much sense to do so.
>>>
>>> (Create a zone name "sitename" -- create an A record with BLANK name
>>> [i.e., same as parent] and give it the IP address you wish.)
>>>
>>> You could probably stick this name in your own zone, since a machine will
>>> (normally) append its own domain name.
>>>
>>>
>> Yes, that's what I thought - but I have tried both, and no luck.
>
> Show the results of an NSLookup against your specific DNS server where
> you added the record:
>
> nslookup -time=10 sitename. IP.Address.DNS.Server
> nslookup -time=10 sitename.domain.com IP.Address.DNS.Server
> nslookup -time=10 -q=soa sitename. IP.Address.DNS.Server
> nslookup -time=10 -q=soa sitename.domain.com IP.Address.DNS.Server
>
> I put a "." at the end of the "sitename." to terminate it -- try it with and
> without
> it.

Ah - thanks for the "." hint - due to weird DNS design clients append
DNS suffix outside the domain.local - making a zone with the name of the
suffix and creating the host with BLANK name fixed it.

Thank you very much.

I have a similar (I think so anyway!) problem that hopefully might be
answered with a quick follow-on question.

We've a domain, say "trousers.com" and we have a Forward Lookup Zone
set up for our parent comany of, say "socks.biz"

We need to be able to resolve a "socks.biz" server without typing in
the suffix, but the way we have it set up, it doesn't do that.

For example:

ping sausages

won't resolve the name, yet:

ping sausages.socks.biz

does fine.

Is there any way we can get our DNS to automatically look in the
Forward Lookup Zone for an address before it stops trying?

The only way I can get it to work at the moment is adding a load of
CNAME records into the trousers.com zone, pointing to the records in
the "socks.biz" zone, but it's not really a satifactory solution.

Hope someone can help me!

AL.

<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>I have a similar (I think so anyway!) problem that hopefully might be
> answered with a quick follow-on question.
>
> We've a domain, say "trousers.com" and we have a Forward Lookup Zone
> set up for our parent comany of, say "socks.biz"

So the DNS server has both DNS zones, or just the one "trousers.com"?

> We need to be able to resolve a "socks.biz" server without typing in
> the suffix, but the way we have it set up, it doesn't do that.

Being able to resolve a domain without the suffix is generally just to
allow your users to be LAZY -- this really has nothing to do with the
DNS resolution by the DNS Servers.

Just add the additional suffixex in the NIC->IP Advanced->DNS tab
of every client (or through a GPO etc.)

> For example:
>
> ping sausages

Why? You can do it, but this is not going to change how DNS servers
works.

> won't resolve the name, yet:
>
> ping sausages.socks.biz
>
> does fine.
>
> Is there any way we can get our DNS to automatically look in the
> Forward Lookup Zone for an address before it stops trying?

No. You do this on the DNS CLIENT.

> The only way I can get it to work at the moment is adding a load of
> CNAME records into the trousers.com zone, pointing to the records in
> the "socks.biz" zone, but it's not really a satifactory solution.

Ugh.

Just teach your users to type the full name is the BEST solution.

Otherwise they may get the "wrong" server if there happens to be
Large.trousers.com and a Large.socks.com servers.

> Hope someone can help me!
>
> AL.


--
Herb Martin, MCSE, MVP
http://www.LearnQuick.Com
(phone on web site)

On 18 Apr, 12:36, "Herb Martin" <n...@learnquick.com> wrote:
> <al_ru...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> > We've a domain, say "trousers.com" and we have a Forward Lookup Zone
> > set up for our parent comany of, say "socks.biz"
>
> So the DNS server has both DNS zones, or just the one "trousers.com"?

Our Active Directory Domain Controller hosts "trousers.com" and the
parent company is in a different AD, with a different DC and called
"socks.biz"
We load the "socks.biz" as a forward lookup zone on our DC.
I was told that would allow name forwarding without suffixes by
someone, though obviously we know that's not the case now!
Is there another way to do it? We've no-one here who really an expert
in DNS, we've just got by with enough knowledge in the past.

> > We need to be able to resolve a "socks.biz" server without typing in
> > the suffix, but the way we have it set up, it doesn't do that.
>
> Being able to resolve a domain without the suffix is generally just to
> allow your users to be LAZY -- this really has nothing to do with the
> DNS resolution by the DNS Servers.

The reason we need this to be able to work is we use Lotus Notes and
the servers are set up as "Sausages/SOCKS" in Notes and
"saus-001.socks.biz" in windows.
When you click on a database link in Notes, it looks for the notes
server, in this case "Sausages" with no domain suffix.
All the server documents sets up with the windows names in them, in
this case, the "Sausages/SOCKS" server document has
"saus-001.socks.biz" as the Fully Qualified Internet Name, but Notes
doesn't seem to use that to resolve it.
I totally agree about the lazyness part, but unfortunately it's Notes
being lazy and there's nothing the users can do to get around it.
I was pretty horrified when I realised that Notes worked like this,
I'd always assumed it did something to resolve itself internally, but
since we've had to move to different Notes/Windows server names, I've
realised it doesn't do anything of the sort.

> Just add the additional suffixex in the NIC->IP Advanced->DNS tab
> of every client (or through a GPO etc.)

> > For example:
>
> > ping sausages
>
> Why? You can do it, but this is not going to change how DNS servers
> works.
>
> > won't resolve the name, yet:
>
> > ping sausages.socks.biz
>
> > does fine.
>
> > Is there any way we can get our DNS to automatically look in the
> > Forward Lookup Zone for an address before it stops trying?
>
> No. You do this on the DNS CLIENT.
>
> > The only way I can get it to work at the moment is adding a load of
> > CNAME records into the trousers.com zone, pointing to the records in
> > the "socks.biz" zone, but it's not really a satifactory solution.
>
> Ugh.
>
> Just teach your users to type the full name is the BEST solution.
>
> Otherwise they may get the "wrong" server if there happens to be
> Large.trousers.com and a Large.socks.com servers.

All the Notes/Windows server names are based on locations (I've used
artistic licence with the names I've used above!) so there should be
no name overlaps.

To give a bit of background into why we've got a bit of a crappy
setup, we were taken over by a larger company a few years ago.
We've integrated into their Notes domain fine, but we've had trouble
being allowed to join their Windows AD as we've a lot of restricted
data here which we're told is not allowed to be accessed by
administrators from the parent AD.
So we're stuck in a sort of half-way position, which is a right pain.

But it does sound like we're out of luck with what we were hoping we
could do the Forward Lookup Zone.

Anyway, cheers for the reply. :-)

> Herb Martin, MCSE, MVPhttp://www.LearnQuick.Com
> (phone on web site)

<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> On 18 Apr, 12:36, "Herb Martin" <n...@learnquick.com> wrote:
>> <al_ru...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>>
>> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>>
>> > We've a domain, say "trousers.com" and we have a Forward Lookup Zone
>> > set up for our parent comany of, say "socks.biz"
>>
>> So the DNS server has both DNS zones, or just the one "trousers.com"?
>
> Our Active Directory Domain Controller hosts "trousers.com" and the
> parent company is in a different AD, with a different DC and called
> "socks.biz"

Same AD forest or different forest?

> We load the "socks.biz" as a forward lookup zone on our DC.

Good -- generally you should do the similar thing on the other domain
DNS.

> I was told that would allow name forwarding without suffixes by
> someone, though obviously we know that's not the case now!

That "someone" was misinforming you -- "suffixes" are on the client
and only allow your users to be lazy about typing the name.

> Is there another way to do it? We've no-one here who really an expert
> in DNS, we've just got by with enough knowledge in the past.

Yes, you put the Suffixes on the DNS Tab of the NIC->IP-> Advanced
properties.

>> > We need to be able to resolve a "socks.biz" server without typing in
>> > the suffix, but the way we have it set up, it doesn't do that.
>>
>> Being able to resolve a domain without the suffix is generally just to
>> allow your users to be LAZY -- this really has nothing to do with the
>> DNS resolution by the DNS Servers.
>
> The reason we need this to be able to work is we use Lotus Notes and
> the servers are set up as "Sausages/SOCKS" in Notes and
> "saus-001.socks.biz" in windows.

That's different -- that's (apparently) resolving the NetBIOS name --
you should have said this earlier.

You need (a replicated set of) WINS Server(s) -- with every computer
in both domains a WINS Client if you have more than one subnet.

You need this anyway if you have multiple subnets.

> When you click on a database link in Notes, it looks for the notes
> server, in this case "Sausages" with no domain suffix.
> All the server documents sets up with the windows names in them, in
> this case, the "Sausages/SOCKS" server document has
> "saus-001.socks.biz" as the Fully Qualified Internet Name, but Notes
> doesn't seem to use that to resolve it.
> I totally agree about the lazyness part, but unfortunately it's Notes
> being lazy and there's nothing the users can do to get around it.
> I was pretty horrified when I realised that Notes worked like this,
> I'd always assumed it did something to resolve itself internally, but
> since we've had to move to different Notes/Windows server names, I've
> realised it doesn't do anything of the sort.
>
>> Just add the additional suffixex in the NIC->IP Advanced->DNS tab
>> of every client (or through a GPO etc.)
>
>> > For example:
>>
>> > ping sausages
>>
>> Why? You can do it, but this is not going to change how DNS servers
>> works.
>>
>> > won't resolve the name, yet:
>>
>> > ping sausages.socks.biz
>>
>> > does fine.
>>
>> > Is there any way we can get our DNS to automatically look in the
>> > Forward Lookup Zone for an address before it stops trying?
>>
>> No. You do this on the DNS CLIENT.
>>
>> > The only way I can get it to work at the moment is adding a load of
>> > CNAME records into the trousers.com zone, pointing to the records in
>> > the "socks.biz" zone, but it's not really a satifactory solution.
>>
>> Ugh.
>>
>> Just teach your users to type the full name is the BEST solution.
>>
>> Otherwise they may get the "wrong" server if there happens to be
>> Large.trousers.com and a Large.socks.com servers.
>
> All the Notes/Windows server names are based on locations (I've used
> artistic licence with the names I've used above!) so there should be
> no name overlaps.
>
> To give a bit of background into why we've got a bit of a crappy
> setup, we were taken over by a larger company a few years ago.
> We've integrated into their Notes domain fine, but we've had trouble
> being allowed to join their Windows AD as we've a lot of restricted
> data here which we're told is not allowed to be accessed by
> administrators from the parent AD.
> So we're stuck in a sort of half-way position, which is a right pain.
>
> But it does sound like we're out of luck with what we were hoping we
> could do the Forward Lookup Zone.
>
> Anyway, cheers for the reply. :-)
>
>> Herb Martin, MCSE, MVPhttp://www.LearnQuick.Com
>> (phone on web site)
>