# [SOLVED] Public domain name vs local domain name



## rajthampi (Oct 30, 2004)

Hi guys

Now we are facing a peculiar problem related to domain names. During re-structuring of the LAN we chose 'xyz.com' as our domain and totally ignored the factor that we already had a public domain 'xyz.com' online, hosted by third parties. We even went ahead and constructed our email solution (Microsoft Exchange server). All the email accounts bearing 'xyz.com' for prefix

Now our major problem is none of our employees can access our public domain 'www.xyz.com' from within the LAN, because all the computers in the LAN are using local DNS server which is 'xyz.com'

Please advise whether there is a solution (other than re-constructing our domain or changing our public domain name) we could embrace a workaround so that the users from our LAN could access www.xyz.com

Thanks and regards,


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## phubeone (Aug 23, 2005)

*Re: Public domain name vs local domain name*

You could add an entry in the DNS.

Go to administrative tools>DNS, expand server name>forward look up zones and xyz.com.
On right pane, right click and click on Add New Host (A)....
Under name leave it blank and move down to the IP address and put in the IP address of the website for xyz.com, do the same step but under name type in www and type in the address for xyz.com.


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## rajthampi (Oct 30, 2004)

*Re: Public domain name vs local domain name*

Dear phubeone thank you very much for the reply. I'll post the results once after we do complete the tasks you recommended.
Thanks again


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## rajthampi (Oct 30, 2004)

*Re: Public domain name vs local domain name*

Dear phubeone, it does work!!! Thank you very much and I wish you would spend few minutes explaining the logic behind creating such entries with DNS, please?


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## phubeone (Aug 23, 2005)

The reason why you can't go to xyz.com if the local domain matches the public domain is because they are named the same. The DNS thinks xyz.com is local so you have to add a record so that it points to the website. In a domain environment AD relies on DNS for a lot of things and all the workstation uses the local DNS to resolve the names.

Without the (A)Record:
users tries to browse to xyz.com
DNS says xyz.com is local and returns the IP address back to user
browser tries to go to ip given above which is wrong

With the (A)Record:
users tries to browse to xyz.com
DNS says xyz.com is at x.x.x.x and sends IP back to user
browser takes you to the website


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