Issues resolving local domain name with Windows 7

Question

We have subdomain entries in our local DNS server which we use for web development. The IP's they point to our bound to web sites.

For Example:
FarmA.webstaging = 10.1.10.10
FarmB.webstaging = 10.1.10.11

The domain name entries have been setup for many years now and work fine with XP and Server 2003 systems.

Now that we are rolling Windows 7 into our environment we are having issues with these entries. You cannot browse or ping the names, but if I use nslookup I do receive the correct IP address.

When you ping the FQDN (e.g. FarmA.webstaging.ourdomain.com) the name resolves as expected. Checking the DHCP information I received I have a primary DNS Suffix of ourdomain.com and ourdomain.com is listed in DNS suffix search list. So I should not need to include the domain name.

If I add entries into the hosts file, I am able to browse and ping the name, it resolves correctly.

What I would like to find out is why this is happening and if there is a way to correct this issue without having to add hosts file entries to each windows 7 machine. (I have not tried Windows Server 2008 yet).

Update: What I have noticed is that the name will resolve using nslookup.

nslookup FarmA.webstaging 

works fine in resolving the ip address; ping cannot resolve.
I have noticed in the past that ping and nslookup seem to resolve addresses differently, something I have not been able to discover why.
I

Answer 1

I ran into this problem. Unfortunately, the solution isn't as obvious as fixing the DNS suffix!

See this article for a complete explanation and the solution: http://blogs.technet.com/b/networking/archive/2009/04/16/dns-client-name-resolution-behavior-in-windows-vista-vs-windows-xp.aspx

TL;DR:

Windows 7 has a rule change compared to Windows XP when it comes to how the DNS resolver treats multi-level names: By default, Win7 will NOT append your DNS suffix to multi-level names, whereas Win XP did. This means that in Win7, FarmA.webstaging will not work, but webstaging by itself will work, as will FarmA.webstaging.yourcompany.com (i.e. the FQDN).

To fix: open up group policy editor and browse to:

Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Network -> DNS Client -> “Allow DNS Suffix Appending to Unqualified Multi-Label Name Queries”

Set this to "Enabled" and restart your browser; it should fix the problem.

Answer 2

You say:

When you ping the FQDN (e.g. FarmA.webstaging.ourdomain.com)

and

ourdomain.com is listed in DNS suffix search list. So I should not need to include the domain name.

This would be true if webstaging.ourdomain.com was in the search suffix list. It's not, so this is behaving as expected. You'll have to add webstaging.ourdomain.com to the search suffix list either manually or through DHCP options to get the behavior that you desire.

Answer 3

did you check ipconfig /all? What is the "node type" of the Windows IP Configuration?
If its Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Peer-Peer then follow these steps:

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.

2. Locate and then click the following registry

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\NetBt\Parameters
   

3. In the right pane of Registry Editor, delete the following values if they are present:

   - NodeType
   - DhcpNodeType 
   

   If the NodeType value is present, this value will override the DhcpNodeType value. If neither subkey is present and if no WINS servers are configured for the client, the computer uses b-node mode. If at least one WINS server is configured, the computer uses h-node mode.

4. Quit Registry Editor

5. Restart the computer
6. Try ping computers by their names

An "ipconfig /all" should now give:
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid

Answer 4

That was a good one:) Make sure that on your windows 7 box you have on your network connection (Local Area Network or whatever)->ipv4->advance TCP/IP settings->DNS you have check "Append this DNS suffixes (in order)" and that ourdomain.com is in that box.

Even if DHCP gives you an address it does not mean that it registers it in DNS also. You need to allow dynamic updates

Its complicated to explain why, but its the way MS implements DNS for resolution of unqualified names. You may want also to check "register this connection in DNS"

See if it works.