asterisk in an A record (question for the experts)

  • Thread starter Thread starter Chris Henderson
  • Start date Start date
C

Chris Henderson

Hi there,

In the NT 4.0 DNS I could add an asterist in a host (A) record name and use
it as a wild card. This does not seem to be the case with Windows 2000/2003.
I tried adding a host record i.e. *test and it would not let me either in an
AD integrated DNS zone or a standard primary zone.

Can anybody help me figure this one out?

Chris
 
Hello Chris,

Thanks for your posting.

From your post, my understanding of this issue is: You can create a Host
(A) record with an asterisk in the host name (for example, *test) on
Windows NT Server 4.0 DNS Server, however you cannot create such a record
on Win2000/2003 DNS Server. If this is not correct, please feel free to
let me know.

Chris, I have tested this issue on my side and based on my test, I am
afraid that we cannot create such a Host record on a Win2000/2003 based DNS
Server. This is a by design behavior and we cannot change it. We can only
create a wildcard Host record like the following:

*.example.com IN A 10.0.0.1

In addition, I would like to know why you want to create such a Host
record. If you need to identify a host with multiple names, you may create
the Alias (CNAME) records for the host.

The DNS Server service can use wildcards to associate multiple possible DNS
name destinations with a single computer acting as a gateway for all names
based on a wildcarded name. The most common use of wildcards in DNS
records is with the mail exchanger (MX) resource record; for example, to
configure DNS for an Internet mail gateway host routing mail between your
private network and the Internet. The following is an example of the
wildcard record usage:

*.example.microsoft.com. IN MX 10 mailserver1.example.microsoft.com
example.microsoft.com. IN MX 10 mailserver1.example.microsoft.com
mailserver1.example.microsoft.com. IN A 10.0.0.2

For detailed information, please refer to the following articles:

Checking names and zone data
<http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windowsserver2003/library/Serv
erHelp/bb74e112-68db-4492-86f3-e8ef013e04c6.mspx>

Explanation of DNS Wildcards
<http://support.microsoft.com/?id=193844>

You cannot use the DNS snap-in to create a wildcard character record
<http://support.microsoft.com/?id=840687>

Hope the above information helps. Should you have any concerns, please
feel free to let me know. It is my pleasure to be of assistance.

Have a nice day!

Steven Wang
Microsoft Online Partner Support

Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
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