DNS Server not propagating sub-domain

Question

This is complex, so please bear with me. We are a small company with an internal DNS server. We manage our own FTP and mail, but host our website remotely (Bluehost). We are using Mac OSX 10.3 (Panther) Server software to route users behind our firewall. I recently created a new sub-domain for a mobile version of our website (m.mysite.com). It works fine fine remotely or from a proxy server. It does not work at our office behind the firewall. Is there something wrong with my zone records?

Here is my local zone record:

Type  From              To
NS    mysite.com        ns.mysite.com
A     ns.mysite.com     10.0.0.100
A     ical.mysite.com   10.0.0.100
A     mail.mysite.com   10.0.0.101
A     ftp.mysite.com    10.0.0.103
A     mysite.com        74.220.195.50 (my remote webhost IP)
A     www.mysite.com    74.220.195.50
MX    mysite.com        mail.mysite.com
A     m.mysite.com      74.220.195.50 (does not work!)

Here is an exerprt from the zone record on my remote webhost:

Type  From              To
A     @                 74.220.195.50
A     localhost         127.0.0.1
A     mail              17.149.160.49 (my office's IP)
A     ftp               17.149.160.49
A     m                 74.220.195.50
A     www.m             74.220.195.50

I tried dumping local caches and rebooting all the local machines. No joy. Everything works EXCEPT m.mysite.com. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong? BTW these aren't the real remote IPs. I am using these for illustrating the problem.

Answer 1

If you want to have a DNS server who talk to Internet, you'll need another server. Your DNS server called primary will have to be visible on the Internet. Your second DNS server, will be used locally.

Your primary server will hold routable IP address over Internet.

Your secondery server will hold routable IP address over Ethernet (your LAN).

Primary server example :

Type  From              To
NS    mysite.com        ns.mysite.com
A     ns.mysite.com     74.220.195.50
A     ical.mysite.com   74.220.195.50
A     mail.mysite.com   74.220.195.50
A     ftp.mysite.com    74.220.195.50
A     mysite.com        74.220.195.50
A     www.mysite.com    74.220.195.50
MX    mysite.com        mail.mysite.com
A     m.mysite.com      74.220.195.50 

Secondery server example :

Type  From              To
NS    mysite.com        ns.mysite.com
A     ns.mysite.com     10.0.0.100
A     ical.mysite.com   10.0.0.100
A     mail.mysite.com   10.0.0.101
A     ftp.mysite.com    10.0.0.103
A     mysite.com        10.0.0.100
A     www.mysite.com    10.0.0.100
MX    mysite.com        mail.mysite.com
A     m.mysite.com      10.0.0.100

So the idea behind that is

    Everyone
       |
      You
       |
     Router
    |      |
    A      B

A : Visible on the Internet - DNS, Web server, whatever you want (you route your domain there)

B : Local DNS server, you use it as primary and secondy DNS server inside your lan connection.

In the office, your computer will ask B and your gonna get the internal IP address of A. So you gonna see the page of the server A.

On the Internet, your gonna see computer A and your gonna ask server A.

Your computer will look at B for the DNS resolving thing before going to A and since B should hold your assignement, your computer will get your internal IP address of your server.