I have a Windows Server 2008 box with two static IP addresses (192.168.xxx.120 and 192.168.xxx.118) running IIS7 thay hosts ~30 websites.
The DNS server on the network is configured to point website traffic to 192.168.xxx.120. Public DNS resolution is done outside the building by a number of third parties.
In the web logs I've noticed that the actual logged address is 192.168.xxx.118 ie not the one pointed to by the DNS.
What's going on here, and how can I make the websites use the address pointed to by the DNS records? The correct IP address has become important to me for SSL certificate resolution.
Crispin
EDIT: I aplolgise because I initially wrote Windows Server 2003, but that was wrong, it's Windows Server 2008. I have both on my network.
Best Answer
Sounds like DNS doesn't point where you think it does. That sounds vaguely confirmed by the behaviour you describe when you bind the site to a specific IP.
If it's just one group of clients, eg, external clients using external DNS, then chances are their connections are NATted (translated) anyway, and it could be that the external port 80 mapping from publicname.example.com to an internal address isn't what you think it should be.
To troubleshoot it properly, grab a tool like Wireshark or Network Monitor, and capture some traffic for a little while. You can do that from either the client or the server, or both (both simultaneously gives you the best possible coverage of what a client thinks is happening, and what the server is seeing at the same time, which - depending on networking kit - isn't always the same thing.)
You'll see the source and destination IP address used by incoming and outgoing packets.
If a client resolves a name to an IP address, it connects to that IP address. There's little scope for fiddling with that.
On one of the client machines with the problem, run a quick PING www.example.com to see what its initial impression of the IP address is.