CNAME forwarding not working?

[Kremlar]

In the past if I've wanted to forward a domain to another site, I've simply setup a WWW CNAME record on the domain I wanted to forward, and pointed it to the intended destination, and it has worked fine.

However, I've run into an instance where setting up a WWW CNAME record is NOT working. In this instance, if I try to browse to the URL I get the server's generic page "web server software has been installed" (as if I was browsing direct to the IP).

So, browsing to:

www.domain1.com - works fine

(domain 1 IP address) - brings up the server's "web server has been installed" page as expected

www.domain2.com (CNAME pointing to www.domain1.com) - also brings up the server's "web server has been installed" page


So, it's definitely redirecting to the right place, but the web server at the destination is showing a generic site rather than the one I expect it to show.

I could purchase web forwarding from Network Solutions, which I suspect would work, but in the past CNAME records have always worked for me. Since Network Solutions charges for web forwarding I was trying to avoid that if possible.

Can anyone explain why a CNAME record might not redirect as I'd expect it to?

 

[Emulex]

why not just use two A records? seems like it would result in less lookups.

cnames refer to A Records which refer to ip's.

so just setup two A records pointing to the same server and set up name based hosting (doesn't work for ssl).

 

[Crusty]

Sounds like your web server is configured wrong and doesn't know how to handle a request for that hostname. How are you hosting the site?

 

[Kremlar]

It's at a hosting company. I believe I just misunderstood how CNAMEs work, and I better understand now.

Thanks