Bypass Proxy Exceptions

[Bankesy]

Hello

 

I am going to repeat myself with regards to the new website problem as I am getting nowhere.

 

As mentioned in other posts our new school website does not appear inside the school unless the address is removed from the bypass proxy list but this stops other web based features we have from running.

 

With the exception in the list we just see the old Joomla site hosted on the internal web server and I have tried to read about redirecting but it all made very little sense to me.

 

The new website does work outside of the school because the county council made the relevant DNS changes.

 

Is there a simple way around this?

 

Thank you

[TomC]

have you got the DNS change in you internal dns?

[ReBoot]

Sounds like you have your old site hosted internally using your schools FQDN and this site includes some additional features such as the room booking system. Your new main site is now hosted externally using the same FQDN as the old internal server.

 

I would think the simplest solution is going to be to use a different FQDN for the internal site to avoid confusion with the new external site.

 

As you haven't given much info on your DNS setup its difficult to give you precise instructions.

 

In my school I would do something like http://www.oldserver.schoolname.local for the internal site and http://www.school.county.sch.uk for the public one.

 

Another option would be to use a subdomain of the existing FQDN for your internal site but this will be more complex. I assume your internal site is private to the school and not accessible from the public internet. I think in this scenario a change to the internal sites domain name is your best option.

[Bankesy]

Hello

 

I haven't made any changes to my internal DNS due to lack of knowledge and skill.

 

In the DNS setup I have a forward lookup zone called school.county.sch.uk for example and in here is a Host A record called www pointing at the web server, if I remove this record then the other services I speak of stop working.

 

Our intranet page is only accessible in school but everything else such as VLE, HAP+ and the website itself have always been accessible outside the school as well.

 

Thanks for picking this up, hope the information helps.

[localzuk]

Ok, to clarify - you have a server external to the school network which is http://www.school.domain.tld. This has replaced an older one which was internal, which is still available internally via the same URL.

 

Also, on the internal URL, you have, I'm guessing, sub directories sending people to things like /helpdesk or /library or whatever? Are those services actually installed on that same internal server?

 

Basically, the only way you can point your internal use of http://www.school.domain.tld to the external server is to get rid of the internal DNS record that points to a different server.

 

Other services that were available on that URL need to be moved to a different address - you're not going to be able to have them accessible via an address on an external server without complicated reverse proxying.

[Bankesy]

Yes the new site is hosted outside of the school by the design company, our URL has always been and remains http://www.schoolname.thurrock.sch.uk

 

The suggestion from their tech guys was that I need to create a CNAME record pointing at schoolname.fluencycms.co.uk but again this somewhat goes over my head.

 

Our other internal services have the same URL followed by /something as you mention, for example the room booking service is /mrbs or the network status feature /monitor

 

Now on the web server if I go here: C:\Program Files (x86)\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\htdocs\WWW I can see folders named mrbs, monitor and such so I assume they are installed to the server

[localzuk]

Ok, the problem you have is that you're trying to effectively have 2 servers on the same domain name. You can't do it without something doing some conversion - either have the internal server redirect http://www.schoolname.thurrock.sch.uk/ requests from inside the school to the external server by reverse proxying or, move the existing services to a different domain eg. internal.http://www.schoolname.thurrock.sch.uk, and then have the external server redirect or reverse proxy to that address.

 

Either way, you end up deleting the internal A record.

[Bankesy]

Ok I think it's starting to make more sense.

 

So moving the services seems like a better idea but does this involve creating a new forward lookup zone or just a new domain within the existing schoolname.thurrock.sch.uk forward lookup zone?

 

I also don't have any control over what the external server looks at, that I presume is down to the hosting company and the county council.

[localzuk]

You don't need to change the forward lookup zone at all. Just add a new DNS A record with a different name, pointing at the internal server's IP address, and delete the old www A record that exists in that zone.

 

That way, www will not get a response from your server, instead forwarding up to the external DNS, and the new name will resolve to your internal server. You *may* have to make some config changes on the internal services though - as they may have a reference to www. as their URL in their config files/settings somewhere.

[Bankesy]

Ok if I create a new A record I am asked for the name of it and the FQDN is greyed out, whatever I type in the name box automatically precedes the FQDN

 

Now I know at this point you're wondering how I can be finding it so difficult but to me creating a new record such as internal.schoolname.thurrock.sch.uk means those services have to exist at internal.schoolname.thurrock.sch.uk which they don't because they exist at http://www.schoolname.thurrock.sch.uk

[harriuk]

OK from what I understand is that your new external website is http://www.school name.thurrock.sch.uk and your old server still has services running on it that still need to be accessed by http://www.school name.thurrock.sch.uk/*

 

To make this work you need to create a new DNS A record for your internal server for example www2. You would need to make sure your services are setup to allow connection to it on the new address including any certificates for secure connections. Then follow the instructions of you external web host and create a CNAME entry of www (that's all you need to enter as your DNS will automatically add the school name.thurrock.sch.uk) pointing it to schoolname.fluencycms.co.uk. because this is pointing to an external DNS zone your DNS server will do an external lookup for http://www.school name.thurrock.sch.uk.

 

That should work.

 

Good luck

[Bankesy]

Ok I am going to go through this step by step so stick with me in case I get stuck...so:

 

1.On the DNS server in the schoolname.thurrock.sch.uk forward lookup zone I am creating a new A record called www2 with the IP of the internal server

[localzuk]

That's right, that will point www2.schoolname.thurrock.sch.uk at the internal server. You then need to delete the existing A record for www.

[Bankesy]

Ok but surely I haven't actually created www2.schoolname.thurrock.sch.uk yet?

 

To my mind I have to make this URL exist and move the services (presumably the folders from the apache path above) to it?

[localzuk]

A URL is just a pointer - adding an A record is creating it. There's nothing more to do to create such a URL.

 

The server is just running as an IP address - the "name" given to it is just for convenience.

[Bankesy]

Right so I will delete the www record now and report what happens

[Bankesy]

So far so good, I now have the www2 entry and deleted the www entry

 

At this stage I have no errors and the services I speak of are still working.

 

Correct me if I am wrong but I now create the CNAME record?

[localzuk]

You shouldn't really need to create a CNAME to be honest - your DNS server should forward the request out to net, and the LEA ones should service the requests for it instead. Does www. not work at all now then? If it doesn't, add the CNAME as suggested.

[Bankesy]

www. does still work but I am seeing the old website still

[localzuk]

You'll need to clear the DNS cache on your PC - it'll still be using the old mapping. Run ipconfig /flushdns from a command prompt. If you're using a proxy, you may also need to clear the DNS cache on the proxy server also.

[Bankesy]

Lets go back a step, I was too quick there

 

Those services have stopped working, where they should be on the page I just get 'Internet Explorer cannot display the page'

 

I also have an error message regarding a logon script

[Bankesy]

Not to complicate matters but when I talk of these services not working I am talking about them on our intranet page, this is the page we see when loading internet explorer which has these features built in and a URL of intranet.schoolname.thurock.sch.uk

 

The intranet page itself however has its own A record pointing at a different server on which I can see a site called Intranet installed to IIS and this has the same folder names in it referring to the services which stop

 

The intranet page also has a link to the website and it is this I am using when I say I see the old site but even doing a Google search produces the old site so I'm guessing the problem is still somehow linked to the entry in the bypass proxy list.

 

What does it all mean?

Edited January 29, 2015 by Bankesy