Unable to run local version of example.com on browser

Question

I wished to run example.com on my local test server (Win XP). For this I was able to setup BIND and configured zones for example.com. The local DNS server and local Apache web server both work well. However when I try example.com on browser it takes me to the original example.com not to the local version.

So what am I missing here? Why can't example.com point to the local version in Apache.

zone record for example.com

$TTL 3h
example.com. IN SOA ns1.example.com. ns2.example.com. (
                          1        ; Serial
                          3h       ; Refresh after 3 hours
                          1h       ; Retry after 1 hour
                          1w       ; Expire after 1 week
                          1h )     ; Negative caching TTL of 1 hour

;
; Name servers
;
example.com.  IN NS  ns1.example.com.

;
; Addresses for the canonical names
;
localhost      IN A     127.0.0.1
ns1            IN A     192.168.1.2

1. ISC BIND service is running.
2. Apache is running.
3. Dig @192.168.1.2 example.com - shows expected results.
4. Changed my primary DNS to 192.168.1.2
5. Not using any proxy. Everything works from the same box. Browser, DNS and Apache.

What to do to make local example.com work?

Update: I tried - nslookup example.com got the following response -

;; Got recursion not available from 192.168.1.2, trying next server
Server:         4.2.2.2
Address:        4.2.2.2#53

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:   example.com
Address: 208.77.188.166

For nslookup 192.168.1.2 I got -

;; Got recursion not available from 192.168.1.2, trying next server
;; Got recursion not available from 192.168.1.2, trying next server
Server:         4.2.2.2
Address:        4.2.2.2#53

** server can't find 2.1.168.192.in-addr.arpa.: NXDOMAIN

For Dig example.com, I got -

; <<>> DiG 9.6.1 <<>> example.com
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 494
;; flags: qr aa rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 0
;; WARNING: recursion requested but not available

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;example.com.                   IN      A

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
example.com.            3600    IN      SOA     ns1.example.com. ns2.example.com. 1 10800 3600 604800 3600

;; Query time: 15 msec
;; SERVER: 192.168.1.2#53(192.168.1.2)
;; WHEN: Sat Jul 04 17:05:05 2009
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 73

Answer 1

is it possible that your web browser uses some proxy rather then direct internet connection?

probably not - but still worth asking.

what does your windows nslookup say when you fire it up on computer where you use web browser? does it say that 192.168.1.2 is one and only dns server? what happens when you type example.com as query ?

[edit: i'm blind.. this one should fix the problem] add

@ IN A 91.206.245.2
www IN A 91.206.245.2

to your bind zone file, change serial number and reload bind.

Answer 2

The DNS server you just installed and configured (BIND) is an authoritative name server. That's fine but you cannot use it as a recursive name server, which is what you did when you "Changed my primary DNS to 192.168.1.2". Hence, nslookup's screams "Got recursion not available from 192.168.1.2, trying next server".

An authoritative name server is... authoritative for some domains (here, example.com) but is not a general-purpose resolving server. For that, you need a recursive name server.

Two solutions:

1. Make your BIND name server recursive for your local machine. (Basically, it means adding a recursion yes; in a view, or being sure that your BIND listens only on local IP addresses.) Note that it is bad practice to have a name server being both recursive and authoritative but, for a personal machine used only for tests, it is not a big deal.

2. Tell the regular recursive that it must forwards requests for example.com for your machine. I cannot say more, it depends who manages it, what software it runs, etc.

Answer 3

I agree with pQd, you may also run a tool such as wireshark to see where it goes wrong.

Answer 4

If you are using proxy server then for a while disable proxy server and choose connect to internet directly and open example.com. (Do not open www.example.com)

If things work fine with direct connection to Internet option. Then re-enable proxy server and put do not use proxy for

127.0.0.1;localhost;.example.com;

in firefox or put bypass proxy for

127.0.0.1,localhost,*.example.com

in Internet Explorer.