Manually adding records to DNS server

[fooby]

Hi

 

We have an IIS server internally hosted, with an external IP tunneling in. The domain name points from the outside world internally, and I would like to make our dns server point the external address to the internal IP address. As it is, traffic from the webserver goes out to the world and back (over a 2mb link) which considerably slows things.

 

In the DNS server i added a new Primary Forward lookup zone, however this is not forwarding requests on for unknown DNS queries. It returns an error that i cant find that address. this is needed because it is our proxy server hosted by our LEA that i need the IP for. I can manually add this but i would either like it to forward the request to the LEA dns servers, or if anyone knows a way to add a DNS entry manually for just one address.

 

Long post I know, but hopefully I explained all

 

fooby

[ZeroHour]

Why not add a a record for say "intranet" which points to the internal iis ip address. Then tell people to use intranet to access it.

[fooby]

That might work, however some of the PHP scripts need to have the full domain name for links set in its settings (some arent relative and will go to http://external.address/section/file.php etc) so I need that external address changed so that it points to the internal IP address.

 

For example, if i went to http://internalname/index.php it would display the page. When I press logon, I would get redirected to http://external.address.sch.uk/logon.php (or whatever)

 

Some of the resources (basic html pages with video archive) works (actually its channel 4 clipbank cds, work pretty good )

 

fooby

[ZeroHour]

Ahh poor html kung foo

have you got school.region.sch.uk type domain for the external link?

Have you set that up as a forward lookup?

[fooby]

Yeah, the address is machine.school.region.sch.uk internally we have machine.school-cc.region.sch.uk internally so the domains are different.

 

Last time I added school.region.sch.uk as a forward lookup it couldnt resolve proxy.school.region.sch.uk and no one had internet access. I assume also we wouldnt have been able to access http://www.school.region.sch.uk (this address is not the webserver im talking about http://www.school.region.sch.uk is one hosted by someone else)

 

I suppose i could add school.region.sch.uk as a forward lookup and then add the proxy and the www and the webserver i want in manually, however i would prefer that the second forward lookup pass the requests to the LEA dns server so i dont have to update it, should any addresses change.

 

fooby

[chrisg]

you need to add a fwd look up zone to DNS, with the name of the fqdn of the server

 

eg http://www.extsrv.school.regaion.sch.uk

 

then in that add a host

 

(same as parent) Host (A) 192.168.0.220 (or what ever the IP of the machine is)

[DMcCoy]

That might work, however some of the PHP scripts need to have the full domain name for links set in its settings (some arent relative and will go to http://external.address/section/file.php etc) so I need that external address changed so that it points to the internal IP address.

 

For example, if i went to http://internalname/index.php it would display the page. When I press logon, I would get redirected to http://external.address.sch.uk/logon.php (or whatever)

 

Some of the resources (basic html pages with video archive) works (actually its channel 4 clipbank cds, work pretty good )

 

fooby

 

can't you use 'http://'.$_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] for the links in php?

[ZeroHour]

Ahh the joy of PHP, I been dev'ing in it for 6-7 years now

[apeo]

What you could do it set the web browser to bypass the proxy for certain addresses. For example in IE under tool>internet options - in the Connections Tab>Lan Settings and put the address under the exceptions. Hope this helps.

[chrisg]

it would still need some way of resolving the address, doing it that way would probably just cut access off.

[fooby]

@ chrisg re: adding the forward lookup:

Yes i can do this however I cut off access to my proxy server, I can add the addresses for this manually. If the addresses of the proxy changes this could cause problems also if another address is added to our domain, for internal access I would have to add the entries manually.

 

 

@ DMcCoy re: http://'.$_SERVER['SERVER_NAME']

Can't really change that, its Joomla, Moodle, PHPBB2 that are being used, I suppose i could modify these if i wanted to be adventurous.

 

@apeo re: bypassing proxy

For the students, they use an internal proxy server, which passes the request externally, to another proxy. I could bypass this doing what you say, however the above applies too, where the script will redirect to the FQDN machine.school.region.sch.uk.

[DMcCoy]

@ chrisg re: adding the forward lookup:

Yes i can do this however I cut off access to my proxy server, I can add the addresses for this manually. If the addresses of the proxy changes this could cause problems also if another address is added to our domain, for internal access I would have to add the entries manually.

 

 

@ DMcCoy re: http://'.$_SERVER['SERVER_NAME']

Can't really change that, its Joomla, Moodle, PHPBB2 that are being used, I suppose i could modify these if i wanted to be adventurous.

 

@apeo re: bypassing proxy

For the students, they use an internal proxy server, which passes the request externally, to another proxy. I could bypass this doing what you say, however the above applies too, where the script will redirect to the FQDN machine.school.region.sch.uk.

 

Thats what I used in the joomla config.php as it is sort of broken otherwise for multiple domains. Also have to modify the editors in places though.

[fooby]

So in the config, you put in http://'.$_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] instead of the address? I could try this.

 

Thanks to everyone so far, this is a good resource.

[DMcCoy]

My config contains:

 

$mosConfig_live_site = 'http://'.$_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'];

 

This has to be changed by hand, and then the file needs to be set to read only to stop any changes mangling the address again.

[apeo]

Ah ok sorry i misread what you state, i thought you had already included the relevant entries into your dns server. My bad, think i need coffee

 

Over here we have www and proxy entered in manually.

[Ric_]

Just an idea, and a long-winded one at that, but you could add the entry to the localhosts file on each client. You could then add an entry within your IE settings to bypass the proxy for that address and it will route using the localhosts file.

 

Ideally - you clean up your website code though... it might be worth it as a quickish fix in the meantime (a bit of scripting will help you here )

[DMcCoy]

Just an idea, and a long-winded one at that, but you could add the entry to the localhosts file on each client. You could then add an entry within your IE settings to bypass the proxy for that address and it will route using the localhosts file.

 

Ideally - you clean up your website code though... it might be worth it as a quickish fix in the meantime (a bit of scripting will help you here )

 

I just added a www alias to my ad dns domain. So to visit the site internally you go to www..school

 

(had to drop .local )

 

Then I altered joomla. Its hosted internally so it needs to work from 3 addresses, ip, internal name and external name. Joomla is rather rubbish when it comes to this, hence the modifications.

[fooby]

Editing the HOSTS file for about 500 computers could be done I suppose, however editing the DNS server is only one change. On my PC here to admin the network I have done that in testing and such.

 

I will investigate the configurations.

 

thanks

[GrumbleDook]

Good to see you dropped .local ... I wish M$ would update their training docs on this too ... apparently it is still the standard on demonstrations for MCSE training.

[DMcCoy]

Good to see you dropped .local ... I wish M$ would update their training docs on this too ... apparently it is still the standard on demonstrations for MCSE training.

 

Even better, dropped .local for impending Mac suite(s).

 

It is still added as default on Win 2003 sp1 install.

[ZeroHour]

Mac is spawn of satan

[E1uSiV3]

Mac is spawn of satan

 

Hater!

 

lol seriously tho, why the bad vibes for macs? i bought one a few months ago and i love it, so does my GF.

 

Back on topic tho, id edit the webby to relative paths otherwise this one will keep coming back ot haunt you on configuration changes, a well thought out and written search and replace would go a long way (after a backup of course ) If you have dreamweaver, i believe it has a "search for broken links" option too so you can automatically check for borked bits.

[ZeroHour]

Dreamweaver! I use notepad lol

You may love you mac but feck running a network with 'em