Resolve name with www
I know there is a simple way to do this but it has been defeating me all day.
What I want to do is have my DNS resolve to www without typing in www. In other words, if my web site is http://www.someweb.com I want to be able to just type in http://someweb.com and get to the same place. My domain is someweb.com.
I've tried a lot of different things, can someone just show me a configuration where this works.
Thanks
Jim Edwards
[459 byte] By [
JimEdwards] at [2007-11-26 7:12:30]
# 1
What you exactly need to have? Do you want to write in your browser web address without www? Or you want that your DNS server could answer for all requests without www with web server address? Or only your host could resolv web server address without www?
# 2
You're requesting to have a searchdomain list that works with the prefix part instead of the default postfix part of a domain when the domain doesn't end with the root-dot. And the feature you're requesting isn't normally available, but some webbrowser have some extra intelligence that when there is no A-record in DNS for a domain to try again with a www prefix.
Then again, I'm not in favor of this kind of solutions, because it lets a door open for spammers and phishers to bypass uribl filtering, but have a working site. In the same way, but more difficult, this is a problem with searchdomains when a FQDN doesn't end with the root-dot. But then again, a lot of software is really broken on this part and are going to be a source of problems within the next five to ten years.
# 3
OK, I normally type in http://www.somedomain.com to get to my web site. I want to be able to just type in http://somedomain.com.This is already in place on lots of sites, try http://yahoo.com for example. Thanks for any help you can provide.
# 4
So in other words, you want people *out on the net* to be able to get to *your* site by typing foo.com in the location bar of their browser instead of www.foo.com?That would be an alias with your DNS provider, if that's the case?
# 5
I'm my DNS provider, I'm looking for the record I need to put in my DNS files to make it work. I've tried thissomeday.com IN A 1.1.1.1but it doesn't work.I've tried this:www IN A 1.1.1.1IN A 1.1.1.1but that doesn't work either.Thanks
# 6
This link is from <shudder> the Evil Empire, but I think it's what you're looking for: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=168322
# 7
Thanks Red but that's not it. What that allows me to do is set up multiple names for the same IP address. That is what I want but I don't know what name to specify to have it convert <nothing> to www or more specifically to resolve <nothing.>somedomain.com to an IP address. What that article shows me how to do is convert host.somedomain.com to www.somedomain.com.
I've actually found a few articles by googling it but either I'm just not getting it or the solution is operating system specific.
Anyway, thanks for the input.
# 8
Define an A record for coffee.com and a CNAME record for (for example) www.coffee.com that refers to coffee.com, as follows:
coffee.com. IN A 192.168.0.1
www.coffee.com. IN CNAME coffee.com.
The CNAME is basically an alias that points to your A record. Advantage of this is that you could have several CNAMES, and if your IP address changed, you only have to update the A record.
# 9
Thanks again Red.
I tried that but it doesn't work. My domain, to use your example, is coffee.com. When I put in an A record of coffee.com, coffee.com.coffee.com works but just coffee.com does not.
I don't think a CNAME is the answer. What I have read is that a Microsoft DNS server automatically adds the www if it is not supplied so maybe that is now the others work. I'm using Solaris.
The answer still eludes me. Thanks anyway.
# 10
Your call, but I think you will find in the long run that you need a cname pointing to your A record.Best of luck.
# 11
Red, I agree, I will probably end up with a CNAME pointing to www but the problem is what do I put in there. Fill in the ? in this scenario to make http://coffee.com work like http://www.coffee.com
www IN A 1.1.1.1
?IN CNAME www
I tried this
coffee.com IN A 1.1.1.1
wwwIN CNAME coffee.com
and it doesn't work unless I do coffee.com.coffee.com. The reverse doesn't work either.
Thanks again
# 12
> Red, I agree, I will probably end up with a CNAME
> pointing to www but the problem is what do I put in
> there. Fill in the ? in this scenario to make
> http://coffee.com work like http://www.coffee.com
>
> www IN A 1.1.1.1
> ?IN CNAME www
>
> I tried this
>
> coffee.com IN A 1.1.1.1
> wwwIN CNAME coffee.com
>
> and it doesn't work unless I do
> coffee.com.coffee.com. The reverse doesn't work
> either.
>
> Thanks again
Did you try my cut/paste above? You have
www IN CNAME coffee.com
where according to what I found, it should be
www.coffee.com IN CNAME coffee.com
from what I can tell.
Also notice in my earlier that there are periods after the URLs; try with those as well. I'm not an expert, but I do know that in other protocols, like NIS+, the trailing period can be significant.
# 13
Hallo.
Have you tried to "snoop" the network card while you are trying to resolve the name?
Do the following:
- If possible there should be no other network traffic on the DNS server but DNS.
- Start "snoop" on the DNS server (will log all the network traffic to a file).
- From another computer type http://someday.com
- Stop "snoop" and analyze the network packets (e.g. using snoop itself or using ethereal)
So you can find out if the problem is within your server or if it is a problem of the providers' DNS servers (so they do not forward the request to your server correctly).
Sometimes you'll have to wait for some hours because the information "server someday.com does not exist" is cached in the providers' DNS servers. You'll have to wait until this information expires.
Martin
