So my boss asked me last week to start moving our company workgroups over to our new windows 2003 server. Everything has been fairly straightforward up until I started working with DNS. Cliff Notes: - Set up IIS site on our DNS and AD Server - Can access the site via http://localhost and its IP - unable to access the site via http://triackb1, on any system except for the server - DNS is not set-up correctly The Problem: I'm trying to move our company's Knowledge-Base (think vbulletin for engineers) from an old IBM machine. I've enabled IIS6 on the server (which is also the AD and DNS server) and created a new site, and ASP is running correctly, etc. - When I try and access the KB via http://localhost, on the server, the KB loads up fine. - When I type in http://192.168.1.111 (the servers IP), I'm dumped to the KB's error page, which is also correct. The KB software is licenced per-domain and so trying to access the KB via the machines IP will not work. (The KB should only be accessed by a FQDN - in our case, the licenced FQDN is http://triackb1) -When I type in http://triackb1, on any system except for the server, I get dumped to a "The page cannot be diplayed" page. why? I think the problem is with the way I have the DNS set-up (or not set-up) - All the workstations are pointing to the server as the primary DNS, and the ISPs DNS as the secondary. I think the the lookup for http://triackb1 is being forwarded to the ISP's DNS because our DNS doesn't know to tell the workstation otherwise. Does that make any sense? Any help would greatly be appreciated, as I'm a bit lost - I can provide more details upon request.

"All the workstations are pointing to the server as the primary DNS, and the ISPs DNS as the secondary." You should have forwarding on *your* DNS server set to the ISP's DNS servers, and both this server and your clients should be pointed to your internal DNS server. With that said, there's a simple way to tell if your DNS records are setup correctly: On a client machine, start - run - nslookup lserver <your internal DNS server's IP> triackb1 This forces your internal DNS server to be used to resolve triackb1. If it resolves, your DNS server's records are configured properly. Please help survivors of Hurricane Katrina! www.redcross.org

1. have a look at event viewer for DNS 2. Use PortQry from a workstation to check port 53 on the server. http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=832919 3. "traickb1" sounds like an UNQUALIFIED DNS name, not a FQDN. You need to create a domain for it, for which your DNS server becomes the "Start of Authority" - basically the boss of all name resolutions within that domain. A standard convention is calling your internal DNS domain "local". The FQDN then becomes triackb1.local . On your DNS server you create a zone ".local" and go from there (there's a wizard). Sometimes companies get an ISP to maintain the zone, (i.e. hold the Start of Authority DNS server) but set up another DNS server on the local LAN. You'd consider doing this primarily if your company had a large presence on the web (but then you'd definitely know about a FQDN, it would be something like triackb1.triacengineering.com) Also, i'm not sure if this is necessary, but when giving the computer a name, you can specify the primary dns suffix. You could make sure that the server has the same suffix as the zone. "If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure." - BILL CLINTON