Root domain not resolving correctly

Without knowing the domain name, it's pretty difficult to tell you where the problem is.

I've just posted on that referenced thread... do NOT use CNAMEs -- use A records for the different child domains.

If you want to post your domain name, perhaps I can help.

host -v www.nineridge.com

;; ANSWER SECTION:
www.nineridge.com. 3585 IN CNAME www.nineridge.com.

This is wrong (it's pointing to itself), should be:

www.nineridge.com. IN CNAME server.nineridge.com.


"My client is pointing to my server for DNS (although the client is wireless, and in Leopard the primary DNS is hard-coded to the router...yet this doesn't appear to cause any problem with OD so I don't think it would here either)."


If the router use public DNS IPs and NAT loopback works it could be OK.

If reusing the same domainname internally you usually need to run a private IP DNS on your LAN duplicating the names from public DNS but with private IPs for your LAN server.

I would use the A record in the DNS table for this zone for whatever DNS server(s) are authoritative for this domain name.

Your post suggested that you were running your own DNS. If so, then it's in your DNS server that you do this.

If your Registrar offers DNS services for your account, and you are using THEM for your DNS, then it is in their DNS table for this zone that the A record will be substituted for the CNAME record.

A whois lookup of your zone (zones are DNS-speak for domains) tells me that these two name servers are authoritative:

NS49.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
NS50.DOMAINCONTROL.COM

That appears to be owned by wild west domains. So those are the machines that need to have the correction made.

Leif beat me to the next issue you have -- a self-reference loop. Bad form, there. (nice catch, Leif). Read his post -- 'though I would still use an A record rather than the older CNAME technique. DNS isn't hard, it's just foreign to you for now.

nineridge.com. 86400 IN A 209.107.233.6
www.nineridge.com. 86400 IN A 209.107.233.6
server.nineridge.com. 86400 IN A 209.107.233.6

If that's the appropriate IP.

Message was edited by: Paul Vail

First, you should only have one primary DNS. If you insist on have two for whatever reason, they both better match exactly. The slaves will update in their due time.

Second, in your SA:Web:Sites -- is nineridge.com pointing to a site (and www.nineridge.com is a web server alias for it?

From my perspective:

nineridge.com. 3600 IN A 209.107.233.6
www.nineridge.com. 3600 IN A 209.107.233.6

so that much is in agreement. And both resolve to a placeholder page in a browser for me.

I'll put it this way:

nineridge.com is the first level or 'host' FQDN for your zone, right? (I'm making assumptions that you only have one zone for everything 'nineridge.com'-related and you didn't delegate off child domains to another server somewhere else.)

So, ignore whatever you have in YOUR DNS on YOUR server at the moment. Go outside of your LAN, because I can't see inside of your LAN right now.

Go do a whois of nineridge.com. That tells me a bit about you, about your Registrar, and what name servers the rest of us see as the master/slave (primary/secondary if we are to be politically correct).

The meaningful part of the whois record to me is:

Domain Name: NINERIDGE.COM
Registrar: WILD WEST DOMAINS, INC.
Whois Server: whois.wildwestdomains.com
Referral URL: http://www.wildwestdomains.com
Name Server: NS49.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
Name Server: NS50.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
Updated Date: 21-jul-2008
Creation Date: 13-oct-2006
Expiration Date: 13-oct-2009

So ultimately what my browser will pay attention to is whatever my DNS is fed from (ultimately) NS49.DOMAINCONTROL.COM and NS50.DOMAINCONTROL.COM.

Next, we dig nineridge.com for some basics

nineridge.com. 3600 IN A 209.107.233.6
nineridge.com. 3600 IN NS NS49.DOMAINCONTROL.com.
NS49.DOMAINCONTROL.com. 2577 IN A 208.109.14.200
nineridge.com. 86400 IN SOA NS49.DOMAINCONTROL.com.
nineridge.com. 3600 IN MX 10 server.nineridge.com.
server.nineridge.com. 3600 IN A 209.107.233.6
dns.jomax.net. (
2008072000 ; serial
28800 ; refresh (8 hours)
7200 ; retry (2 hours)
604800 ; expire (1 week)
86400 ; minimum (1 day)
)
www.nineridge.com. 3600 IN A 209.107.233.6

So while I see from the whois that you should have redundant DNS running (a master and a slave), all I am getting is ns49. Where is ns50? Why is it not in your table? Why isn't it a slave - it's only listed in the delegation data. DNS is redundant by nature (and by specs).

Well, you need to fix that, but in the meantime, my next task is to try to resolve both the host and the www child. Both resolve. So somehow you have your server pointing an apache directive to a folder (or two separate folders) with the same content -- the default content for a leopard-hosted website.

You posted that you set up your SA:Web:Sites:General Domain Name as nineridge.com but that didn't work. It was pointing to a site folder (sandboxed user folder, or the default generic server web space)? Where, exactly, was it pointing? (path, please). And was it enabled in the upper pane? And the web services was running?

I'm not being a dick -- there has to be a reason it failed to work. But if I understand you, it was set up correctly (and the child 'www.nineridge.com' should have been set up as a web server alias).

This is viewing from the outside. I have no idea how you have set up your internal DNS -- but I would tell you to turn OFF your server DNS until you get the outside viewing your domain properly, because again I suspect there is something your machine is feeding your LAN that it shouldn't be. Once you do the following:

get additional DNS servers outside of your network to work with your solitary machine (single point of failure here), and update your zone table to reflect the other name servers

get your host name and all children resolving properly

then you can play with your internal. Yes, it may muck with your OD, but you've got a screwed pooch of a process already, and the sooner you get your stars aligned on doing things in an expected manner, the easier life will be for you down the road.

"I deleted the www CNAME and added it as an A record instead on my registrar. Are you saying that I should do the same on my server?"

Not neccesarily, it seems to work. And I don't think CNAMES is deprecated, but there has "always" been "restrictions" on how to use them. It has at least been: one A record for one IP, then use CNAMEs.


If you want to test a public DNS while on the NATed LAN:

host -v www.nineridge.com <public IP DNS>


And don't use the router as DNS (what DNSes is it pointing to?) only use the server DNS on the LAN.

You can use your ISP DNSes as forwarders.


Using the Leopard DNS GUI you have to enter "nineridge.com." as a FQDN if you want to get an A record pointing to 192.168.9.254 for that name ("root domain").