I'm looking at a corporate web site (theServer.theDomain.com) having an address that is correctly resolved if I simply type the subdomain by itself:
ping theServer
But if I try to reach that web site in a browser...
http://theServer
...it fails with a 404 not found. HTTP access succeeds only if I enter the FQDN. The first thing that comes to mind is IIS 7 configuration. Perhaps a proper change there would allow simply the subdomain to be accepted (suggestions?). But besides a potential ambiguous name (a conflict with the same subdomain in another domain root) what other problems might I encounter to get the result I'm looking for? For example, perhaps a gateway is configured to route HTTP traffic as if it is external traffic. In that case, a subdomain alone would never work.
I'm looking for a checklist of items to consider to make this work. This is only for use within the corporate intranet.