Redirecting w/ CNAME

[David Delbridge]

Hi all,

I remember once setting up a CNAME record in DNS to forward
"test.mydomain.com" to "www.microsoft.com" and it worked beautifully.
In other words, pointing a browser to "http://test.mydomain.com,"
produced Microsoft's website.

Now, I am trying to repeat this behavior (but without the benefit of the
instructions that prompted my former success) and cannot get it to
work. IE returns a 400 error. The CNAME record is simply:

Parent domain: mydomain.com
Alias name: test
Target host: www.microsoft.com

What am I forgetting?

Any help is GREATLY appreciated.

Dave

 

[Herb Martin]

Now, I am trying to repeat this behavior (but without the benefit of the

instructions that prompted my former success) and cannot get it to
work. IE returns a 400 error. The CNAME record is simply:

Presumably you are trying to do something more useful than point
YOUR web name to Microsoft and hopefully you aren't attempting to
defraud anyone....

In Windows DNS you just right click on the Zone, create new Alias/Cname
and give the name it will be known by as well as the actual name.

Make sure you have the A-host record for the actual name.

Simple with the GUI.

 

[Jonathan de Boyne Pollard]

D> What am I forgetting?

You are forgetting that there are two parts to what you are doing, one
involving your content DNS service and one involving your content HTTP
service. In your case, the latter is actually _Microsoft's_ content
HTTP service.

What you are doing is in essence no different to the task described in
<URL:http://homepages.tesco.net./~J.deBoynePollard/FGA/web-allowing-omission-of-www.html>.
The same procedures as described there apply.

Microsoft has changed its virtual hosting recently. (As I noted to
Ace in this very forum a little while ago, Microsoft's virtual
hosting is a mess.) This probably occurred in between the time when
what you did worked, and now.

 

[David Delbridge]

Presumably you are trying to do something more useful than point

YOUR web name to Microsoft and hopefully you aren't attempting to
defraud anyone....

Of course not. The example I mention is provided only for simplicity
and testing purposes.

Make sure you have the A-host record for the actual name.

So, I need an A record for "test?" Which IP address should I map it to
-- the source site's or destination site's? ie. (www.mydomain.com or
www.microsoft.com)?

Thank you for your kind advice.

Dave

 

[Herb Martin]

Of course not. The example I mention is provided only for simplicity
and testing purposes.


So, I need an A record for "test?" Which IP address should I map it to
-- the source site's or destination site's? ie. (www.mydomain.com or
www.microsoft.com)?

Maybe (especially given your example) I wasn't clear enough -- but I was
thinking in terms of you doing this with your OWN zone.

Correction:
The A-record must exist, be resolvable. You add the CName to point to
that A-record.

If (as is common) the A and CName are in the same zone, then "You need
the A-record" but if the A-record is a name from another zone SOMEONE
must create that A-record in that other zone.

Cname maps from request Name to actual name.
A record maps from this name to actual (public if on the Internet) IP of the
machine you wish them to contact for BOTH the A and CNAME names.