DNS problems

[Scarpozzi]

Ok...I need some help from the people who know what they're doing... This is what I'm running. I have an ADSL account and I'm running a webserver on that account. From my internal network I cannot use my domain name to access the site, I can only use my local ip address because when the request hit my router, I guess it's almost as if it is requesting its own IP address from the DNS server so it doesn't get anything in response...(I think that's why anyway). This wasn't a big deal until I decided to get a mail server going as well... There is a way to make my computer see my own ip address as my domain name, but I do not know how to do this without getting my own DNS server here on my internal network...which I don't have money for. Does anyone know how to make TCP/IP requests to a certain domain name go straight to an ip address to override the normal DNS requests? Help! Thanks...

Ohh yeah, I'm running all this on Win98SE until I get my Win2k Machine built.

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[Mong0]

I believe you could try and add an entry to your &quot;hosts.&quot; file located \windows\hosts.

Kinda like this.

xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx pop3.domainname.com
.....^......................^
IP address...............Host Name

Edited for alignment.

 

[zogg]

why dont you try one of the free dns services out there on the net like tzo.com or dyn.dns.org

 

[Scarpozzi]

Thanks Mong0,
That's exactly what I ended up doing... However, I couldn't ever get it to load properly. I edited the host file, rebooted, and I still could not access my system from itself. Does anyone have any suggestions?? Thanks....

 

[Cable God]

Since it's on your same subnet, do it to the LMHosts and at the end, add a #PRE to tell Win to load it into cache from the start.

 

[Scarpozzi]

Ok...I've edited my LMHOSTS file. I loaded it from the run prompt using the nbtstat -R command. I also placed a new group in my system.ini file for [NBT] to specify where my lmhost is to load at startup. It still is not working. Has anyone ever done this before? I'm trying to use Win98 and pretty much bypass a DNS request... If anyone knows any reason this wouldn't work, please pass any information you can along. Thanks!

Also, I'm not sure if I need to do any special WINS Server setup, but as of now, I've got it getting that information from my router(DHCP).

 

[CTR]

Are you running NAT?

 

[Scarpozzi]

Yes. I have a small router on my network. That's what the problem is. I'm trying to trick my mail server into thinking my domain's ip address is my computer's internal ip address instead of my router's external address(which is the address set with DNS). This stuff sounds confusing, but I've derived a diagram to illustrate what I'm running.


COMPUTER-------------ROUTER
192.168.0.2 192.168.0.1
running mail XX.XX.XX.XX(external ip)www.mywebsite.com
and web-server

From my computer...or any of them on my internal network, I cannot access my website using my domain name...I have to type the internal ip address. I believe the reason has to do with my router blocking the requests going from itself to itself. When I get email sent to my router, I do receive it at my mailserver....but the problem I'm having is when it gets the mail, it tries to forward the mail or deliver it to the external router address which it cannot access....the mail gets stuck in a loop trying to deliver it to itself and eventually cancels the request.

That's what's going on and I apologize for not being able to explain this any better...if there's a better way to explain what I'm trying to do. Thanks!

 

[CTR]

No this is not confusing at all. Happens all the time due to NAT. The most elegant solution is to run an internal private DNS server for your domain that contains all of your A records pointed to the appropriate internal addresses. Is it possible for you to do this? Even WindowsNT DNS service works fine for this.

 

[Scarpozzi]

I'm only running one real computer on my setup. I have one REAL computer and 2 laptops(one is a dell PIII, but I'm not a big fan of laptops). Eventually, I will be adding a PIII 800 to my setup(in a few weeks), but I would like to use that system for research more than anything else... I want my present system to be used as a web/webcam/ftp/mail server. This computer will hopefully be running Win2k professional since I bought a copy that I'm not even using... So...will the LMHost thing even work with 98SE?

 

[Scarpozzi]

I've been trying adjusting settings with the hosts and still can't get anything... I'm not sure what to try at this point, but Thanks for those of you who responded...

 

[CTR]

Your mailserver problem would be fixed if you ran private DNS and added an MX record for your mailserver as well as the A records I mentioned. The HOSTS file cannot do anything but name-to-address conversions, and LMHOSTS cannot handle MX records. Your real-world MX record might be pointing to an address instead of a name. What is your domain name?

 

[Scarpozzi]

Thanks CTR... I guess I may just have to make myself a DNS server. I was just going to try to save money and resources. My goal was to have everything on one computer...(and right now that computer's running Win98SE). I don't have a 486 and because the people who have 486s these days still consider them computers, I can't even get one for cheap... So I'm going to probably just wait until I build my new system in a couple of weeks and maybe try to build 2...who knows. But...once again, if anyone knows of another way, I'm open for suggestions.

 

[CTR]

Well, if you can get your mx record pointed to a name instead of an ip, then your PC's would resolve that name to whatever was in the HOSTS file. That's why I asked for your domain name, so I could see what your zone listing looked like.

Seems like there should be SOMETHING else that would fix this, though. Tricky problem.

 

[Rifter]

I ummmmm may know how to get ahold of a copy of MetaIP(a DNS server) for ummm prett cheap e-mail me i have a copy i might be willing to sell you

 

[Scarpozzi]

Thanks for the offer Rifter, but there are quite a few free DNS solutions available. I just have to figure out if I want to go that route. I've been working with computers so long that I've gotten more stubborn than they are. I don't usually give up when something doesn't work. I am going to do as much research about HOST files as possible. I've loaded my HOSTS file with my local ip in the format:
192.168.0.4 www.mydomain.com #PRE
and then I ran the nbtstat -r command...or whatever to update the changes. I tried going to the site in a browser and it didn't work...Tried rebooting and it still didn't work. I'm going to do some more tests tonight, but I've had a busy week...(it's called pulling 75hours of hard troubleshooting/studying). So...I'll get it eventually. And I will have that new system eventually to use as a tool to make this work...(hopefully get a 486 for linux too!.....thanks.

 

[Scarpozzi]

OK.....I got it to work, sort of. I had to run the 'nbtstat -R' from the command prompt and play around with my hosts file a little more, but I got it to work for my browser. I'm still trying to get my mail program to work, but I may have to use a different email server program. This one is great, but I'm not sure if it will work on my system since I don't have a local DNS server...I think it uses DNS directly... But I'm having some domain issues right now so I've got to wait for DNS to update(24-48 hours) to get that resolved... But my questions have been answered. Thanks again.