URL aliases in company intranet. How to?

What I saw - people working in company XXX can access specific intranet pages , instead of typing full URL, they type only the alias of the internal webpage or part of the sharepoint and the requested page opens without a problem.
I need this - talked to our sysadmin, but he cannot help me with it. He does not know how or where to setup it.
How to do it - company XXX uses Windows server 2003 and Windows XP, our company uses Windows server 2008 and Windows 7, so I figure it should be possible to us to do the same.
I can only guess if it is configured in group policy or something, but not sure.
If someone is familiar with this concept, please provide me with your knowledge too. Or give a link.
Thank you very much.

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Comments

jibbajabba

If your internal website is for example called

support.domain.com

then add 'domain.com' as DNS suffix under the Computer Name settings (under 'More')

On IE9 though the intranet settings are disabled by default so you'd have to enable that again.

dave0212

We do something similar using DNS alias, the website is then configured to accept the host header

Not sure if that is what you are attempting to achieve

Everyone

Combination of DNS entries and web server settings.

Example, if you wanted the Finance department to get to the Finance section of SharePoint, where the normal URL is like http://intranet/sites/departments/finance or something like that, but you want them to be able to just use http://finance/, you'd have to setup an alias in DNS for finance that points to the SharePoint server IP (so a CNAME record), and then on the SharePoint server you'd have to set IIS up with a redirect where it points to the full URL whenever someone gets to the site by entering http://finance/. I could tell you how to do it in IIS, which SharePoint uses, but not sure if there's anything else you have to do inside of SharePoint, because I don't really touch SharePoint.

Matt27[lt]

Everyone wrote: »

Combination of DNS entries and web server settings.

Example, if you wanted the Finance department to get to the Finance section of SharePoint, where the normal URL is like http://intranet/sites/departments/finance or something like that, but you want them to be able to just use http://finance/, you'd have to setup an alias in DNS for finance that points to the SharePoint server IP (so a CNAME record), and then on the SharePoint server you'd have to set IIS up with a redirect where it points to the full URL whenever someone gets to the site by entering http://finance/. I could tell you how to do it in IIS, which SharePoint uses, but not sure if there's anything else you have to do inside of SharePoint, because I don't really touch SharePoint.

Thanks to all for the response. The above example with a Finance department is on point. I will pass this info to our sysadmin and hopefully he will be able to implement it.

Thanks again to everyone.

cyberguypr

Matt27[lt], curiosity is killing me. What is your position within the company? Shouldn't the sysadmin be the one looking for the solution? If people come to me for solutions and I say "I don't know how to do it" and leave it at that, I would be out of a job pretty soon.

qwertyiop

Matt27[lt] wrote: »

What I saw - people working in company XXX can access specific intranet pages , instead of typing full URL, they type only the alias of the internal webpage or part of the sharepoint and the requested page opens without a problem.
I need this - talked to our sysadmin, but he cannot help me with it. He does not know how or where to setup it.
How to do it - company XXX uses Windows server 2003 and Windows XP, our company uses Windows server 2008 and Windows 7, so I figure it should be possible to us to do the same.
I can only guess if it is configured in group policy or something, but not sure.
If someone is familiar with this concept, please provide me with your knowledge too. Or give a link.
Thank you very much.

I'll try to take a look at my settings when I get a chance but we have this implemented via DNS. for example for us to view our internal wiki iwould http://<server name>/mediawiki but instead all i have to type into the any browser on our internal network is itwiki.

MrAgent

Thats just a simple alias entry into your DNS server. Your sysadmin should know how to add an alias into DNS.

Matt27[lt]

cyberguypr wrote: »

Matt27[lt], curiosity is killing me. What is your position within the company? Shouldn't the sysadmin be the one looking for the solution? If people come to me for solutions and I say "I don't know how to do it" and leave it at that, I would be out of a job pretty soon.

My position? Officially it is "IS consultant". Or jack of all trades. I just get back to this company after some break (will post a story about it) and try to implement some new things to make work more time saving. As for our sysadmin I cannot comment. Maybe he is too busy with other problems. I want to start implementing VDI to our company, but I am afraid of all the opposition. I have no beef with "I don't know how to do it", but I would prefer our sysadmin to say "I don't know, but I will look into it."

dave0212

I thought the mantra of all sysadmins was "I will look into it"

I cant imagine what my boss would say if I just responded "I dont know"

Krunchi

Like the others have stated it an alias in the DNS the technical term is a "Canonical name resource record" or CNAME. Ask him about a CNAME and see if that makes a light bulb turn on.

Everyone

I'm always surprised at the number of Systems Administrators I meet at the different jobs I've had that just seem to have no understanding of DNS. To me DNS is simple. It seems like something any good Systems Administrator should have at least a basic understanding of.

RobertKaucher

Matt27[lt] wrote: »

What I saw - people working in company XXX can access specific intranet pages , instead of typing full URL, they type only the alias of the internal webpage or part of the sharepoint and the requested page opens without a problem.
I need this - talked to our sysadmin, but he cannot help me with it. He does not know how or where to setup it.
How to do it - company XXX uses Windows server 2003 and Windows XP, our company uses Windows server 2008 and Windows 7, so I figure it should be possible to us to do the same.
I can only guess if it is configured in group policy or something, but not sure.
If someone is familiar with this concept, please provide me with your knowledge too. Or give a link.
Thank you very much.

If this is a SharePoint site you need to configure a CNAME in DNS (as others mentioned) - you might need to configure a DNS zone for companyxxx.com and an a record I'm not sure of your set up - and the Alternate Access Map may need to be configured in Central Admin. You do NOT configure this in IIS if this is SharePoint!!! In MOSS/WSS 3.0 the path is Central Administration > Operations > Alternate Access Mappings. Google AAMs so you understand what you are doing before you mess with this.

Matt27[lt]

Talked with the company admins. One don't know how to configure the IIS, SharePoint. And another who knows, simply told to "use the favorite button". Double facepalm. I guess I am going with a "favorite button".

jibbajabba

Matt27[lt] wrote: »

Talked with the company admins. One don't know how to configure the IIS, SharePoint. And another who knows, simply told to "use the favorite button". Double facepalm. I guess I am going with a "favorite button".

Have you tried turning it off and on again ?

Matt27[lt]

Gomjaba wrote: »

Have you tried turning it off and on again ?

What turn off and on again - our sysadmin?

RobertKaucher

Matt27[lt] wrote: »

What turn off and on again - our sysadmin?

See the TV series called the IT Crowd.

Matt27[lt]

RobertKaucher wrote: »

See the TV series called the IT Crowd.

Will try to watch, to get familiar with this idea.

RobertKaucher

Matt27[lt] wrote: »

Will try to watch, to get familiar with this idea.

YouTube - IT Crowd - Have You Tried Turning It Off And On Again?