Lesson 6/14
Mastering DNS suffixes and the hosts file to control name resolutionFind out how the hosts file and the DNS suffix work on Windows. Practical configuration, resolution priority, DNS aliases and handling several domains. Ideal for system administrators and developers.
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Contents
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0:00 Introduction to the hosts file and the DNS suffix 0:25 What is the hosts file? 0:37 The hosts file takes priority over the DNS server 0:46 What a DNS suffix and an FQDN are 0:57 A practical example of resolution with a suffix 1:11 Configuring the DNS suffix on Windows 1:17 Several suffixes, and the search order 1:33 Checking it with ipconfig /all 1:57 Network configuration and the DHCP server 2:00 A look at the lab environment 2:19 Installing the DNS tools on the client 2:33 A tour of the DNS zones 2:51 Where the hosts file lives on Windows 3:26 Editing the hosts file as administrator 4:03 Opening Notepad in admin mode 5:05 What technicians actually use the hosts file for 5:20 Redirecting google.com through hosts 6:11 Redirecting DC02 to another IP 7:02 Hosts file vs DNS: which wins 7:23 Adding the DNS suffix to the hosts file 8:22 A multi-domain scenario (lia.local and vibecoding.fr) 9:14 Configuring communication between domains 10:02 Testing resolution with suffixes 10:27 The limits of the hosts file in a company 11:00 Advanced DNS suffix configuration 11:45 Creating extra DNS zones 12:01 Adding the vibecoding.fr zone 12:44 Managing the DNS records 13:00 Resolving the hosts file vs DNS conflict 14:00 Creating A records in the zones 14:25 Cleaning up the hosts file 14:56 Testing with the DNS cache 15:38 The problem of resolving across several zones 16:01 Checking the suffixes that are configured 16:58 Adding DNS suffixes dynamically 17:12 How the DNS cache affects resolution 18:05 Flushing the cache (ipconfig /flushdns) 19:00 Configuring several search suffixes 19:29 DNS suffix priority in action 20:07 Demonstrating the priority with a cache flush 21:00 A practical case: PC10 in several zones 22:01 Working through the suffix priorities 23:01 A resolution problem caused by duplicates 24:03 Challenge: resolving it properly without the hosts file 25:37 A hint about the record type 27:17 The answer: using CNAME aliases 28:01 The resolution strategy, explained 29:08 Creating DNS aliases across zones 29:45 Confirming the solution with aliases 30:00 Recap: hosts file vs DNS suffixes 30:21 Why aliases matter in a multi-domain architecture 30:34 Conclusion and call to action
