Registered: Dec 2000
Location:
Posts: 21

Default domain definition for Intranet?

Is there someplace within the Network definition to add the default domain for web browsing on an Intranet?

I'm trying to use EudoraWeb for browsing an Intranet (connected via Xircom Wireless Ethernet module) and am having some difficultly with the internal URLs.

Our internal website links are all domain-free; that is they are http://node, not http://node.domain. These are not correcly resolved, so I don't actually find any of the links unless I fully qualify the URL by adding the domain name.

Any suggestions?

-t

Registered: Dec 2000
Location:
Posts: 21

[deleted]

Registered: Jan 2000
Location:
Posts: 34

Do you have a proxy server at work? If yes then you may have to configure the browser to connect to you intranet through the proxy server.

I hope this helps. Just a thought.

Lee

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Registered: Dec 2000
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Posts: 21

Interesting idea.

So you are speculating that if I were to add the proxy server to the configuration as http://proxynode.domain, then any requests made to http://internalnode would be handled by the proxy server, who should know to add the domain to any non-qualified URLs...

I'll try it and let you know if it works.

-t

Registered: Jan 2000
Location:
Posts: 34

I thought you were connecting through you lan. You should be able to connect to your intranet using http://www.domainname.com/intranet name. You will be asked for your user name and password. In the office you can use simply http://intranet.

I hope this helps.

Lee

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Registered: Dec 2000
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Posts: 21

I don't understand your comments Lee.

I am connecting on the Lan. The Access Point is connected inside my firewall. I don't need a proxy server to connect to any of the nodes on the lan, and when I'm using a standard web browser on a PC, this is not a problem.

On my PC, I have a default domain defined, so that when I type in a URL like http://node, the default domain gets added by the TCP/IP layer automatically and it gets translated into http://node.domain so my internal DNS finds it, no problem.

On the Visor, there is no place to define this default domain name, so that when I type http://node, the DNS query fails. If I fully qualify the URL with the domain name, the DNS query works fine and I find the intranet site. Without it, I get a DNS lookup failure.

I have not had a chance to test this by forcing the proxy server to play in the mix but I will. It might just work - but then again, it might not.

-t

Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Houston
Posts: 72

Using your proxy server to connect to the intranet is not going to make the proxy server admin happy. Unless that person is you.

Help me out - what browser are you using on your PC and where/how do you configure a default domain? (This may be a dumb question, but hey - it won't be my first one.)

Registered: Dec 2000
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Posts: 21

The proxy server admin is not me, but he works for me . The volume of traffic from our Visor users to internal websites will not be high, so it should not pose any problems. We have hundreds of users around the company who are incorrectly configured today and don't ignore the proxy server for internal addresses anyway. We put in a fast box (actually a pair of them) so it's not a big deal.

The default domain information is not in the browser, it's in the TCP/IP configuration setting.

On Windoze, it's in:

Internet Protocol TCP/IP
Properties
Advanced
DNS

On the Mac it's what's entered in the "Search Domains" field in the TCP/IP control panel.

-t

Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Houston
Posts: 72

OK, now I understand. I'm familiar (too much so) with that config. In our org, especially with Win95, we had problems with domain search and we now encourage users to use the fully qualified name whenever possible. There isn't any place you can enter that on a Visor, as you are probably aware by now. But I think using the proxy server might work.

Registered: Jan 2000
Location:
Posts: 34

Sorry if I was not clearer earlier, but now I think I have a better understanding.

If you are gaining access to your internet and intranet by dialing into you office LAN. You office may have a proxy server which does two things it acts as a fire wall and a cache to speed up your internet connection. Therefore, you may need to connect to the internet or intranet using your proxy server. We use our proxy server to deny people in our office access to the internet.

Eudoraweb you can set your proxy server under the preferences tab. To access your interanet by passing the proxy server you would type the intranet address under preferences. Eudoraweb has help on using a proxy server.

The DNS might fail because you are not connecting to your proxy server to define the url you are requesting. If your are querrying a DNS outside of your office it would not know the url of your intranet.

I really hope this helps.

Lee

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Registered: Dec 2000
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Posts: 21

Lee,

We are still not connecting on this one.

I am not dialing in (how would I do that using the Wireless Ethernet Module by the way?). I am sitting in my office. The wireless access point is on my desk in front of me. I can connect to it just fine from my laptop and access any node on the network as if I am a wired client.

I fully understand the role of the firewall, the proxy server, and the DNS server.

Interesting though, if I enter the proxy server in the Eudora preferences, it comes up and tells me that the proxy server cannot be found when I go to any link. It does not matter if I enter a node alias, the node name, or the IP address of the proxy, it is not found by EuroraWeb at all. Very strange.

I can still go to any internal website by entering the fully qualified name in the Visit Location field, or if I create a web page with fully qualified links.

-t