Problems with Host Headers (2003)

[Barney]

Lately I've been trying to get host headers working with 2003 Server so I can have multiple websites on one IP address.

I have followed multiple instructions, including the Microsoft one but can't seem to get it to work.

I have tried using host headers for root domain (eg www.domain2.com) and for sub-domains for my default website (eg header.domain1.com) but I either get page not found, or more commonly it gets redirected to my default homepage.

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[DiscardME]

Let's dispense with the obvious stuff first:

When you run a ping against your host header A record, you recieve a response from the correct address? Are you running all your headers over the same port (default: 80) using "all unassigned" addresses? Are using SSL at all? Are there any unicode characters in your header name? (so your headers should only consist of A-Z, a-z, "." and "-")? Are there any spaces in your header names? Do you have any events in the Event Viewer for the w3svc service when the service starts?

For your domains, are you the authorative party or is an external company handling it? Are you using a CNAME or an A record for the header DNS entry? Are you testing from the local machine, or client on the intranet or a client from the internet? Are using WINS at all? If so, do you have the header in your WINS server?

Have you cleared the DNS and WINS tables on the server and on the testing client after each change/resolution? DNS: ipconfig /flushdns WINS: nbtstat -R

After each change on the host headers in IIS, do you restart or manually refresh? WINS: nbtstat -RR

The reason I ask all this obvious inane stuff is because host headers are generally easy, it is the registration of the associated resolution records that can screw it up. Once you have IIS setup with the headers, you can make a change to your hosts file on the local server to see if the headers work. If they do, then you can work your way out.

What kind of troubleshooting have you done beyond the Microsoft procedure for the host header setup?