- <p>It is important to remember to switch back to a normal DNS server
- configuration when you shut off the cakelampvm, or your machine will not
- know the names of any sites on the internet any more!</p>
- <p>Once the DNS server is properly set up, these ping commands should get
- answering responses (from 10.28.42.20):</p>
- <pre>ping cakelampvm.com</pre>
- <pre>ping defaultcake.cakelampvm.com</pre>
- <pre>ping mapsdemo.cakelampvm.com</pre>
+ <p>If your Host PC is running Windows, see the DNS configuration section
+ below that is tailored to that operating system.</p>
+ <p>Important Note: It behooves you to remember to switch back to a normal
+ DNS server configuration when you shut off the cakelampvm, or your machine
+ will not know the names of any sites on the internet any more!</p>
+ <p>Once the DNS server is properly set up (by whatever means necessary),
+ these ping commands should get answering responses (from 10.28.42.20) on
+ both the cakelampvm VM and on your host PC. Note: ping on Linux
+ keeps going forever, so hit control-C when you are tired of seeing the pings:</p>
+ <pre># ping cakelampvm.com</pre>
+ <pre># ping mapsdemo.cakelampvm.com</pre>
+ <p>Note that any other answer than 10.28.42.20 for the address is *bzzzt*
+ wrong, and means something needs to be fixed.</p>
+ <p>If these pings succeed (which hopefully they will!), then try accessing
+ the websites of each domain:</p>
+ <pre>(browse to) http://cakelampvm.com</pre>
+ <pre>(browse to) http://mapsdemo.cakelampvm.com</pre>
+ <p>These should show local sites on the VM rather than sites on the
+ internet. If you instead get failures to find the domains, or if the
+ "real internet" site comes up for cakelampvm.com (the page covered with
+ red X marks and complaining), then the DNS is not hooked up properly yet.</p>
+ <h4>Troubleshooting the DNS</h4>
+ <p>If your pings are getting the wrong answers and you're certain the DNS
+ settings on your Host PC are right, then you may need to flush your DNS
+ cache, and that might be sufficient. On Windows, the command for
+ flushing DNS is:</p>
+ <pre>> ipconfig /flushdns</pre>
+ <p>and on Linux the flush DNS command can be many different things, but try
+ these two most common options:</p>
+ <pre># sudo service dns-clean restart # restarts the client side DNS cache.</pre>
+ <p>or</p>
+ <pre># sudo service nscd restart # restarts the nscd caching server.</pre>
+ After, this try the pings again. If they still fail, please go back
+ over your DNS configuration very carefully. The cakelampvm's DNS
+ feature *does* actually work, but operating systems sometimes do their best
+ to deny this.<br>
+ <h4>Troubleshooting the Apache Sites</h4>
+ <p>If your DNS pings and lookups are functioning properly, but you're just
+ not getting the right websites, then try clearing your browser's cache and
+ shutting the browser application down. Then, start the browser up
+ and try the address again. Often this cache dumping is enough to fix
+ the browser so that you start seeing the local website versions on
+ cakelampvm.com.</p>