Two Domains on One Server – HELP!

[macmanjc]

I apologize in advance for a long post, but I want to make sure that I am as thorough as possible, since this is a complicated problem with several variables.
[b]Here is the situation:[/b]
At a client I have two XServes set up: master.mycompany.net and comm.mycompany.net. The Master server is the OD master and the primary internal DNS server, and it also runs AFP and FileMaker. The Comm server is an OD replica, and it is running the Web and Mail services.
The internal IP for the Master server is 192.168.0.250, and let’s pretend that its external address is 22.1.3.227. For Comm the internal address is 192.168.0.252, and let’s say its external address is 22.1.3.229.
At this point I have been fighting with how to get the DNS set up to work correctly with Comm. The problem is that the website that we are hosting on Comm has a different domain name than the rest of the domain, to make it consistent with a project that they are working on within the company. So if everything else within the company uses the mycompany.net domain, then the website on the Comm server is using the bigproject.com domain. To make things more confusing, our web developer has it set up so that there are actually three separate sites: http://www.bigproject.com, dev.bigproject.com, and demo.bigproject.com.
One last piece of information: at this point they are using an outside hosting company for all of their email, but at some point they are going to bring all of their email in-house, and it will reside on the Comm server. In addition, they send out a weekly email update to people who have opted in, and that is going to go through the Comm server. Both of those fall within the mycompany.net domain. However, the bigproject.com website will also be sending and receiving mail through the mail system.
[b]Here is the problem:[/b]
The web developer has worked with the company who handles all of their current hosting, and they have set up public DNS records, and everything works fine from the outside. However, the DNS situation on the private side of the network (which I am responsible for) is a mess.
If I go to a web browser and try going to any of the bigproject.com websites it eventually times out and tells me that it can’t connect to the server. If for the URL I manually type in the internal IP address then it loads the default http://www.mycompany.net placeholder website.
If I go to any machine on the network and use the host command in terminal and plug in any of the website names, then it returns the external IP address. If I use the host command and put in the FQDN of the comm server, then it returns the internal IP address.
[b]So, the question is:[/b]
How do I configure the internal DNS so that machines on the inside of the network will be able to communicate to the websites that are hosted on the Comm server?
After a lot of troubleshooting and research, the issue comes down to having two domains on the same server. From what I have read, it seems that it should be able to set this up using the Server Admin interface to DNS, but in actual use it does not seem to work.
Here is how I have DNS setup in Server Admin on the Master server:
• Zone Transfers and Recursion are On.
• In the Zones section I have one zone, the name is mycompany.net, the Primary Name Server is master, and the IP is 192.168.0.250.
• In the Secondary Zones section there is nothing.
• Within the Machines section of the mycompany.net zone, there is the following information:
• Name: master, IP: 192.168.0.250 (aliases: none)
• Name: www, IP: [external IP address of the live mycompany.net web site] (aliases: mail, staff, dev, & adv)
• Name: secondary, IP: 192.168.0.249 (aliases: none)
• Name: webmail, IP: [external IP address of the server configured to allow access to their webmail]
• Name: comm, IP: 192.168.0.252 (aliases: http://www.bigproject.com, dev.bigproject.com, demo.bigproject.com, mail.bigproject.com), “This machine is a mail server for the zone” is checked, and the Mail Server Precedence is set to 10.
[b]Recap:[/b]
So does anyone have any ideas why my internal users time out when they try to connect to any of the bigproject.com websites? Is there something else I have to change on the Comm machine entry in the DNS configuration?
Also, does anyone know why they can’t go out of the internal network and come back in from the public IP and get to the website? (I assume that this is what is happening when they time out, since any internal machine will return the public IP of the websites if you use the host command).
Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!!!
-John Ciesla
TechSupport, LLC.

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