Using a laptop with non-loopback router

Hi

I have a router that doesn't support loopback.
For normal purposes this is fine, as my local network PCs can usethe HOSTS file to identify my public domain name with the local IP address of my server.

However, for the laptop, if I add the server to HOSTS, then I won't be able to access my domain from the WAN-side when out on a customer site and dialling up...or alternatively without a HOSTS entry for the domain, I will not be able to access the domain name from the LAN.

Is there a workaround to this?
I am running Small Business Server 2003 and feel I ought to be able to accomplish what I want with an entry in the DNS server, allowing all machines inside the router to pick up a local address for the domain name, while machines outside the router get the IP from the internet DNS.

Then, moving a laptop between external and internal to teh router, would not affect my access to the domain.

Can anyone tell me if this is possible and how to do it in Win2K DNS (or better still in SBS 2003)?
Or is there another way?

Thanks in advance
Nick

 

Ah! the fun you can have using your external domain name inside your local network.

Easiest fix will be to enable DHCP on the server (switch DHCP off on the router). Then create a scope option so that DHCP hands out your server's internal IP address for DNS.

Do you have DNS set up on the server? If so you then need to add a zone for your external domain name (assuming you're using a .local domain internally - best practice). Then create an A record for the server in that zone.

If your server's external address is myserver.mydomain.com, you'd create a zone called "mydomain.com" and an A record in that zone for the host "myserver" with the internal address of the server.

When you connect to another network, the DHCP server serving that network will assign new IP settings, including the address of the local DNS server. That server should have your domain's internet records as held on your ISP's DNS server. That should have mappings to your external IP addresses.

The one thing that would foil this is if you are hosting the internet instance of your domain on your DNS server. I strongly recommend you don't do this on an SBS network. Leave it with your ISP and get them to point their A records at your server's external IP address.

Your reference to loopback is confusing. Loopback as I know it is within the PC. Normal loopback to 127.0.0.1 would not go near your router.