how to create an intranet site vs internet site using IIS? - HTML Forums

htmlcssnewbie · 06-03-2008, 11:54 AM

I know what an intranet is, as opposed to extranet and internet, at least conceptually. Say I wanted to create an intranet site and an internet site using IIS. What would be the differences between each step along the way? Also, both sites will be hosted on a local server. If I anyone can provide a tutorial for setting up an intranet site and one for setting up an internet site, I'd really appreciate it.

Thank you very much.

Paul · 06-03-2008, 12:10 PM

There really is absolutely no difference in setting them up. The only difference is if the IIS web site will be accessible from the internet or not. If you want it accessable from the internet you will have to set a public IP (or a local IP that has port 80 forwarder set to it on your router) on that IIS web site and make sure everything is forwarded through your routers and firewalls properly. If you want it to be only accessable from the intranet you would assign a local IP such as 192.168.1.x.

Typically on an intranet you will also have your own local dns server set up that all the clients on your intranet will use. Then you can assign your intranet web site a hostname such as http://companyweb or http://intranet.company.local .

Whithout details about what exactly you are trying to do it's hard for me to give you more information in this regard. Small business server comes with a nice intranet portal right out of the box, share point 2.0 (you would want to upgrade to WSS 3.0, its free for windows server users) and microsoft office 2007 has a similar intranet portal called MOSS 2007 (microsoft office sharepoint services) but it costs a fair chunk of money. There are also many other free open source intranet portals but I never personally used any of them so I can't comment.

htmlcssnewbie · 06-03-2008, 01:03 PM

Right. No, that is a very good explanation. Thank you.

About the dns settings: Let's say I have a local dns server and a web server, both of which are on separate machines. Say I wanted to make a site called test.company.net. I have to tell the dns server there's a domain name called company.net, correct?

Paul · 06-03-2008, 01:23 PM

test.company.net will be on your world wide server or on your intranet?

If test.company.net is hosted on the world wide web and dns is already resolving to company.net you will need to create a host (A) record for test that will point to the appropriate IP. This host entry will need to be added to the company.net zone on the name server that that is hosting your world wide web dns.

If company.net is an internet site you would have to add a host (a) record for test in your local dns server under the zone for company.net. If you are using the windows dns server you would right click the company.net zone and select "New Host (A)" and enter the internal IP for that web site. If you do not have a company.net zone in your local dns you will have to create a new primary test.company.net zone and create a blank host (a) record under that.

I hope that makes sense, let me know if you need clarification on anything.

htmlcssnewbie · 06-03-2008, 03:15 PM

Thank you very much for the explanation.

test.company.net will be on the world wide web.

I'm a little new to this stuff. So, I have one last question that relates to the above. In IIS manager (on the web server), i see many websites that look like this: x.company.net. And other websites that look like this: x.alternativecompany.net. I went onto the dns server and looked at the dnsmgmt. In forward lookup zones, I see company.net. But I don't see alternativecompany.net. Both are on the internet, though. Are there any other places on the dns server I can check to find evidence that its handling alternativecompany.net? Yet, both, say, test.alternativecompany.net and test.company.net use the same local dns server. I thought maybe im missing something.

thanks.

Paul · 06-03-2008, 03:58 PM

What name server are you using for those 2 domains? The same one for both? And are you sure that name server actually points to the dns server you are looking at?

Go to your command prompt and type the following:

Code:

nslookup test.company.net

and

Code:

nslookup test.alternativecompany.net

Do you get the same result for both or is it different?

htmlcssnewbie · 06-04-2008, 08:33 AM

I get different results. test.company.net is a private IPv4 address, while test.alternatecompany.net is a public IPv4 address. Both are accessible via the Internet. In fact, both domains, company.net and alternatecompany.net have hosts of www. I'm guessing there's a firewall/router configuration in my topology that's forwarding traffic from the internet to the private IPv4 address, test.company.net.

It's just odd that, executing ipconfig on test.alternatecompany.net shows its dns server as the local dns server, not a public dns server. I dont' want to bombard you with this problem, if it's too overreaching.

Paul · 06-04-2008, 09:12 AM

Don't worry about it, I'm happy to help out.

What happens when you check your dns from an outside server:

http://www.intodns.com/

Are the domain NS records the same for both? And where do those NS records point, to a server on your network? Also, where are both your sites hosted, on an IIS server in your network or an outside network?

htmlcssnewbie · 06-04-2008, 10:12 AM

company.net

Nameserver records returned by the parent servers are:

ns37.worldnic.com. ['205.178.190.19'] [TTL=172800]
ns38.worldnic.com. ['205.178.144.19'] [TTL=172800]

d.gtld-servers.net was kind enough to give us that information.

alternatecompany.net

Nameserver records returned by the parent servers are:

ns69.worldnic.com. ['205.178.190.35'] [TTL=172800]
ns70.worldnic.com. ['205.178.144.35'] [TTL=172800]

l.gtld-servers.net was kind enough to give us that information.

I believe both sites are hosted on our network. I think we're registered through network solutions or something of that nature.

Paul · 06-04-2008, 10:19 AM

Even if your sites are hosted on your internal network your name servers are hosted out side of it. So any changes you make in the DNS console of windows server will only have an effect on your local network.

If you want changes to these dns records seen on the internet (such as adding the subdomain test.) you will have to contact the people who are hosting your name servers, in this case network solutions.

Once you get them to create a record for the subdomain and you can ping that sub domain (Start > Run > type 'cmd', hit enter, then type ping test.anothercompany.net) you will have to set up the sub domain in IIS. This guide should help you out:

http://content.websitegear.com/artic...main_setup.htm

Quote:

Microsoft Windows IIS : In case of Internet Information Server (IIS), create a new web site for the subdomain using the IIS Manager, and add the sub-domain (e.g. subdomain.domain.com) as a new host header value listening to the same IP address as specified in the DNS entry. The port is set to 80 (the default for http requests). The host header can be added by clicking on the advanced tab next to the IP address configuration for that web site application. If the subdomain points to a subdirectory of the web site for the domain, then set the home directory for the subdomain web site to the subdirectory. For example, if the domain.com points to C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\ and the subdomain needs to be setup for C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\subdomain, then the directory for the subdomain website should be set to C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\subdomain.

Let me know if you have any questions about this.