Newbie Question

[Guest]

We have intranet and the computer running as a webserver is down, how do you
configure the local DNS server to point it to another computer?

Thank you in advance.

 

[Herb Martin]

[Probably best to put something about your problem in the subject,

We have intranet and the computer running as a webserver is down, how do you
configure the local DNS server to point it to another computer?

Change the DNS A (aka: Host) record for the web server
to point to the replacement IP address of the working
or replacement address.

You could add a new record but that won't really work
correct with both (working and broken) Address/Host
records since SOME people would still be sent to the
broken server.

When it is fixed, just change it back.

You may not realize that CACHING (and the TTL -- Time
To Live) may play a role in how fast the change takes effect.

DNS servers and newer clients (e.g., Win2K+) cache
records they have resolved until the TTL expires or until
you manually clear the caches.

Perhaps you really were not asking how to change the DNS
server to point to another computer in place of your web
server though?

 

[Guest]

I am sorry if I confused with my question, to be more specific I am going to
replace the old webserver with a new one with different computer name because
we change our company name. I don't want to go to each client pc and change
default homepage to the new one. How can I reconfigure our DNS server when
they hit the old homepage to automatically point to the new one? Example is
default homepage is http://oldserver.html I want this automatically to
repoint to http://newserver.html

Please Advice, Thank you

[Probably best to put something about your problem in the subject,

We have intranet and the computer running as a webserver is down, how do you
configure the local DNS server to point it to another computer?

Change the DNS A (aka: Host) record for the web server
to point to the replacement IP address of the working
or replacement address.

You could add a new record but that won't really work
correct with both (working and broken) Address/Host
records since SOME people would still be sent to the
broken server.

When it is fixed, just change it back.

You may not realize that CACHING (and the TTL -- Time
To Live) may play a role in how fast the change takes effect.

DNS servers and newer clients (e.g., Win2K+) cache
records they have resolved until the TTL expires or until
you manually clear the caches.

Perhaps you really were not asking how to change the DNS
server to point to another computer in place of your web
server though?


--
Herb Martin

Thank you in advance.

 

[Herb Martin]

I am sorry if I confused with my question, to be more specific I am going to
replace the old webserver with a new one with different computer name because
we change our company name.

Don't worry about it -- except you won't get useful
answers that way.

I don't want to go to each client pc and change
default homepage to the new one.

It's doable through a Group Policy but I don't know
if there is an IE setting to do it directly or if you
must change something in the Registry directly
(or add an Administrative template.)

How can I reconfigure our DNS server when
they hit the old homepage to automatically point to the new one?

This is not really appropriate for DNS to do, but
the method I gave you before will work -- change
your DNS to point the old name to the new address.
(Works only if the web server does not RELY on
host headers or if you can add the old and new names
as acceptable.)

Do you still own the original name? If not, redirecting
the old name to the new server may not be appropriate.

If you do, why not just put up a referrel page that sends
people from one to the other?

Example is
default homepage is http://oldserver.html I want this automatically to
repoint to http://newserver.html

DNS does NOT do the above.

Notice those are NOT DNS names but rather file
URLs.

DNS knows nothing about page names, only DNS
names.

File URLs must be redirected at the receiving Web
servers through HTML or other code.

--
Herb Martin

Please Advice, Thank you

[Probably best to put something about your problem in the subject,

We have intranet and the computer running as a webserver is down, how

do
you

configure the local DNS server to point it to another computer?

Change the DNS A (aka: Host) record for the web server
to point to the replacement IP address of the working
or replacement address.

You could add a new record but that won't really work
correct with both (working and broken) Address/Host
records since SOME people would still be sent to the
broken server.

When it is fixed, just change it back.

You may not realize that CACHING (and the TTL -- Time
To Live) may play a role in how fast the change takes effect.

DNS servers and newer clients (e.g., Win2K+) cache
records they have resolved until the TTL expires or until
you manually clear the caches.

Perhaps you really were not asking how to change the DNS
server to point to another computer in place of your web
server though?


--
Herb Martin

Thank you in advance.