Question : DNS Serch Suffix

Hi,

I sure there is an easy answer but was hoping some one could help.

I have set up the network diolog on my pc to append the following suffixes to DNS requests.

abc.co.uk
def.co.uk

now when I type ping www.anything.com in to a command prompt I can see it tries to do a DNS look up, however we dont allow the DNS servers to resolve external addresses. (no root hints)

so the server returns that the name does not exist

the Client PC then tries

www.anything.com.abc.co.uk !!!

and this is my problem. how can i prevent the PC's adding the suffix to what is already a FQDN?

I need to keep abc.co.uk and def.co.uk as these are for stub domains that we pull in from another trusted company.

So what I need is if a pain name is serched for the Client atempts to search for its connection assigned suffix and then the two above.

If a FQDN is used then it does not try to attach the suffixes.

Any ideas how to set this up?

Cheers.

Answer : DNS Serch Suffix

For Windows Vista (and Windows 7) there's a policy, you should use that to manage these clients. See:

Computer Configuration \ Administrative Templates \ Network \ DNS Client

Allow DNS Suffix Appending to Unqualified Multi-Label Name Queries

The default behaviour is disabled as far as I'm aware.

Otherwise there's a registry key which can control this depending on the version of Windows.

Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 2008

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\DNSClient
Name: AppendToMultiLabelName
Data: 0 (Do not append suffix) or 1 (Append suffix)
Default: 0

The default value may vary with Service Pack level for Windows XP.

Windows 2003

LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\DNSCache\Parameters
Name: AppendToMultiLabelName
Data: 0 (Do not append suffix) or 1 (Append suffix)
Default: 0

Finally, don't expect that to have the slightest impact on NsLookup. It uses its own resolver and is not bound by the rules used by the DNS Client (DNSCache).

HTH

Chris