Member Avatar for Marymead-IT

Hi all,

I've got a problem that hopefully has an easy solution - but I'm a DNS noob :-)

- We're running a Windows Server 2003/Active Directory domain with the suffix marymead.org.au

- Our website is www.marymead.org.au. The website is hosted by an ISP at another location to us.

- Users can access internet, email etc. fine

- Users outside of our domain can access the website fine

The problem is, that users aren't able to access our website from within our domain. I think this is because the Windows DNS server is looking for www.marymead.org.au locally and returning a "Server Not Found" page in the browser.

How would I go about fixing this? Do I need to create a DNS forwarder or a DNS record of some kind...?

Detailed instructions or redirection to detailed instructions would be appreciated if possible...

Thanks in advance,

- Marymead IT
http://www.marymead.org.au

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Dani AI

Generated

As and observed, this is the common case where the internal AD DNS namespace matches the public site name. When an internal DNS server is authoritative for that zone but the specific host record for the public website is missing, internal clients get a negative response instead of the query being answered by the public DNS.

Two practical approaches:

  • Keep the internal zone and publish whatever public records internal clients need so the internal DNS can answer locally (simplest and fastest). That requires a process to sync/update those records if the hosting provider changes the site IP.
  • Stop the internal server from being authoritative for that public namespace (or delegate/conditional-forward that name) so queries go out to external DNS. That avoids manual record maintenance but is only practical when AD/DNS design allows it.

Quick troubleshooting and verification (replace placeholders as needed):

nslookup public-fqdn internal-dns-ip
nslookup public-fqdn 8.8.8.8

Compare the answers to see which server is returning the result. After any change, clear client DNS cache and force DC registration:

ipconfig /flushdns        (on client)
ipconfig /registerdns     (on the domain controller, if applicable)

Practical tips: publish both the bare/apex name and the “www” name if both should resolve. Watch TTLs and AD replication for AD-integrated zones so updates propagate. Avoid placing a CNAME at the zone apex (many DNS providers disallow it); if the external host uses dynamic IPs, consider scripting updates or using the DNS provider’s API. confirmed the issue was resolved — keep a note of where authoritative records are maintained so future changes don’t drift out of sync.

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Member Avatar for TheOgre

Create a new A record (www) and give it the IP of the webserver, and create a pointer record and it should resolve fine. You might have to force a dns flush on the clients to see f it works right away.

commented: Hit the nail on the head +1
Member Avatar for DimaYasny

yeah, TheOgre is totally right. I had the same problem a couple of years ago and it was readily resolved in the same fashion. only problem being - internal users could not resolve the website unless they actually typed "www."

commented: Useful additional info - thanks. +1
Member Avatar for Marymead-IT

Yep - that was all that was needed. Thanks.

Chris Fry

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