[FX.php List] Somewhat [Off Topic] How to tell your local computers which is a domain-named server

[DC]

wow. that was the most properly backgrounded and well thought out  
question I've ever seen posted to a listserv - anywhere.

usually people ask things like:
"i can't get to lab.troymeyers.com anymore on my local network,  
anyone know why?"

modify /etc/hosts file to strongarm OSX into using the FMSA machines  
local IP to resolve the lab host.

i found this in a quick search on /etc/hosts OSX:
http://kb.wisc.edu/middleware/page.php?id=4506

as it says, YMMV.
dan

On May 23, 2007, at 8:27 PM, Troy Meyers wrote:

> I'm asking here because I bet someone here knows. Apologies in  
> advance.
>
> For the past few years we had an IDSL connection with an Efficient  
> Networks 5871 IDSL "modem" (router) provided through Speakeasy. It  
> was better than dialup at 144Kbps upload and download, but not what  
> you could call fast.
>
> Just recently our local phone company Embarq put new hardware in  
> our area so that we can get real ADSL. We signed up and it's  
> better, though not super-fast because we are still in a remote  
> rural area. The new ADSL "modem" is a ZyXEL 660 series.
>
> Speakeasy hosted the images for our site under the domain name  
> www.troymeyers.com, but for a special domain name,  
> lab.troymeyers.com, they would direct Internet queries to our  
> location through the static IP address of or IDSL router, which,  
> using NAT, would send Port 80 queries to the FMSA-running Mac mini.  
> That's where the HTML content of our pages comes from.
>
> In the past, from in-house computers, if we used the domain name  
> lab.troymeyers.com, by some magic, either provided by the IDSL  
> router or Speakeasy, the FMSA machine was accessed properly. It's  
> unclear to me if the queries actually went out the IDSL router and  
> came back, or if the IDSL router, due to its NAT settings, knew  
> that lab.troymeyers.com port 80 stuff (and others) should be aimed  
> at the local IP address of the FMSA machine.
>
> When we switched to the Embarq ADSL line and the ADSL modem, we  
> kept Speakeasy as our web host, and just had them set their DNS  
> server to aim lab.troymeyers.com queries to our new static Embarq  
> ADSL IP address. This is working just fine for off-site users, no  
> one noticed the change other than a few who commented that things  
> had sped up.
>
> In-house, though, if we use a URL (or a link in our pages) that  
> contains "lab.troymeyers.com" it can no longer be resolved. It's  
> possible I haven't got the right firewall and NAT setting in the  
> new ADSL "modem" but I can't see where it's wrong. Instead I get  
> this error message in the browser:
>
>      Object Not Found
>
>      The requested URL '/whatever/whatever.htm' was not found
>      on the RomPager Advanced server.
>
> I don't know what the RomPager Advanced Server is... maybe it's  
> Embarq's?
>
> In any case this is a nuisance when a user reports a URL that has a  
> problem. I can't use the one they supply directly. I have to edit  
> the lab.troymeyers.com part out and stick in the FMSA machine's  
> local IP address. OR, I can fire up AOL and use their browser  
> (which doesn't work like a normal one, AOL get the pages then sends  
> them on) to see what the user is seeing, but it's a bad browser  
> (for example you can't even View Frame Source).
>
> A long time ago when we actually hosted our pages through DIALUP we  
> had a similar problem, but it was solved by creating a "Hosts" file  
> under MacOS 9.x and adding it via the TCP/IP control panel. The  
> "Hosts" file was (I guess) just an A record that associated  
> "lab.troymeyers.com" with the local IP address of the machine....
>
> But I can't find a way to do this with MacOS X. All machines here  
> are either 10.3.9 or 10.4.9.
>
> Is there a way to specify "Hosts" in MacOS X, or does anyone know  
> the trick that makes the ADSL router know better?
>
> Thank you.
>
> -Troy
>
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