Accessing internally hosted site by configuring DNS server

Question

We have a small network with 20 machines in it. Our DNS and AD server has windows server 2003 installed in it.

Now i've hosted a site http://connect in one our machines. I want this to be resolved in all the other machines.

So i added an A-record in our DNS server in the hosts file. But still we are not able to access the site with its domain name from other machines. I dont want to add a-record in all the machines.

Any ideas?

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 24 '10 at 05:18

2

If you add the record in your DC hosts file, it will only apply for that host. You need to create a DNS entry in your AD DNS. I do not have access to a Windows 2003 machine, but the following should get you started.

Start the DNS MMC snap-in (Start - Programs - Administrative Tools - DNS)
Expand 'Forward Lookup Zones' and select the DNS domain you wish to add a record to
Right click on the DNS domain zone and select 'New Host' from the context menu
Enter the name and IP address for the record
Click Add Host

answered Aug 24 '10 at 05:18

Francois Wolmarans

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Do i need to restart DNS service? I tried whatever you told and i'm not able to connect. – NLV Aug 24 '10 at 05:36
Okie restarting the service did it. – NLV Aug 24 '10 at 06:31

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited Mar 02 '13 at 22:24

I agree with the above suggestion.

And also, remember, even in a single server environment, the data you alter has to "Propagate" through several databases, as well as go out to all your machines, all over the same network, but not necessarily at the same instant -- not due to network speed as you might think, but rather to the timing mechanism for refresh rates (similar mechanism, but the values for when to refresh don't match the same moment in time; if it did the network might crash).

Network memory isn't like RAM or hardDrive space, it isn't written to instantly. It takes time, and in order to maintain speed, it makes assumptions. For instance, once you have a clean connection, connection sustain packets are constantly sent, but only to maintain the connection rather than holding actual data. Every 20min or so (wireless is typically 300-3600 seconds), the network connection refreshes, resending the data from your workstation machine, and verifying it with the server.

If there are changes, the changes are sent back.

But changes don't mean simple changes. For instance, have you ever tried to rewrite or delete a file in use by a system service? With some viruses, this was a boon to the virus. With system caching growing in popularity among systems, however, it's becoming less of a problem.

Here's what I'm talking about:

When you try to edit the record list in the DNS, you are really just adding data to memory that is copied to the hard drive in "Temporary Cache", waiting to be appended.
When the system closes and reopens the file for that program, there is a mark at the end, telling it to append the data you've altered, which loads it into memory as all one file, and utilizes it that way. Before closing the file, it rewrites the file back to the drive. This is the process that begins the linkage. The new information is useless until a file refresh and network refresh are complete.

The choice you have is how quickly you need it.

You have to either:

Wait 20min to 2 days for it to carry over and refresh each database and connection
Restart the service, which will then refresh every database and machine.

Accessing internally hosted site by configuring DNS server

2 Answers2