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evolvd
Asked: 2011-05-20 10:28:49 +0800 CST

Mac can't access internal website via hostname but windows machine can

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Windows pc can go to http://servername:8085 and get to the site fine The Macs go to the same page and get a time out error

DNS on all machines point to the DC at that branch, the second DNS entry points to the DC at the main branch.

Any ideas what could be going wrong?

domain-name-system mac-osx

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    You have to add your AD domain as a Domain Suffix/Search Domain on the MACs. With this, every time you don't supply a Fully Quallified Domain Name but only a Hostname, such as in your example, MAC OS will add the suffix to it.

    For example if your domain is EXAMPLE.LOCAL, then http://servername:8085 becomes http://servername.example.local:8085 and MAC will be able to resolve it fine. Windows clients do this automatically when joined to an AD Domain and that's why your windows machines work fine.

    If I remember correctly the setting is at Apple > System Preferences > Network > Ethernet (or any adapter you use) > Advanced

    There you should find a setting for Search Domain. Add your AD domain there, i.e. EXAMPLE.LOCAL.

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  2. Couple things. First off, is the DNS resolving properly? Try pinging from the Mac.

    I know Apple's mDNS can kick in if your FQDN ends with '.local', which was a suggestion for many Microsoft internal domain names. And mDNS probably won't work. So that could cause you some issues.

    Otherwise, I'd recommend using tcpdump on the Mac. Verify it's sending packets out on that port, see if it's getting a response, or even an error code from the server.

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