DNS issue: Domains not resolving internally

[flipstorm]

Hi folks, I'm new here, so please go easy 😉

Right, recently got set up on BT business broadband and have a nice 2Wire 2701HGV-C Business Hub. All seems to be working well apart from one problem.

I have a static IP so our internal server can be accessed from the outside world. There are a number of domains pointing to this IP and they all forward perfectly using the rules I've set up on the firewall on the BT hub.

The problem I'm having is that machines INSIDE the network are struggling to resolve the DNS for those domains... they're getting the external IP address, but it seems the router is failing to loopback the traffic to the internal server and so connections are failing left, right and centre.

The server itself has a static IP on the network (192.168.1.2). The hub's internal address is 192.168.1.254. As a fix for now I've manually added the domains to the hub's Settings> Broadband > DNS Resolution table and pointed them at the IP address for the server.

I have a couple of issues with this though: 1) it means I have to add domains here every time I point a new domain at my external server (not ideal, but not major), 2) not all the machines on the network are picking up these DNS records (for some unknown reason)

This setup has worked fine on other routers, not requiring any manual adding of DNS records to any internal DNS servers. My thinking is that there is a route missing somewhere on the hub, so it's not recognising it's own external IP address from internal requests and rerouting accordingly.

[ianbowler]

Hi,

Is this something you were able to do okay with your previous router?

I would say it sounds like a limitation of the router, or you need a separate dns server or virtual host to redirect your domains after its hit your router.

Some routers allow you to redirect its WAN IP automatically like the draytek 2820, but most i've come accross (mostly netgear/linksys) wouldn't be able to do that in a million years.

One other thing you could do is edit the hosts files on your workstations, but that sounds harder than adding individual rules as you are already.

[ianbowler]

Sorry, just re-read.

It'll be the router then, no doubt. Personally i hate BT's routers, you get what you pay for generally, so if its free theres a reason, i know they have a lot of possible settings on them, but i for one wouldnt want to get involved. Maybe someone here can heo you out, otherwise get a 2820, i can vouch for them working at resolving from an external host back into your network... (i dont think it resolves externally at all, it automatically recognises that your trying to resolve to your own WAN IP) which, by the way, would mean if your site fails to be available externally, it may still work internally so testing it internally would not be a sure fire way of diagnosing future connection issues, you;d need to get someone on another network to try it or via 3g dongle.

Hope that is of some use!