Two Web Servers

Question

Hey everyone.  I'm stumped! 
Here's my set up.
I have two 10.6 Servers.  One's the OD Master, running DNS, DHCP, SMB and a few other services.  The other's a replica running client fun time services.  It's also hosing all the users "Public" info via AFP and SMB.  Most importantly it's running the school's web server.  The router forwards all requests on port 80 to that server.
I've set up setting up a 10.7 Server that's going to host all of the school's iPad configurations.
It's set up, users can authenticate and download profiles etc INSIDE the school. But not outside.
I've set up the name server info already so outside the school, 10.7server.server.com points at my IP address, but when you do that, it just dials up the 10.6 web server.
My question is this.  How do I set up the router so that requests go to 10.7server.server.com when that's the address entered by users?
OR, is there a way make the DNS server or the Web server recognize when someone types 10.7server.server.com from outside the school?
-Graham

Answer 1

IP routers know from and deal with IP addresses, and not with DNS names.
If you want to implement a scheme where you have two external references into your network, then you would want and use two public IP addresses and the associated forwarding, or a much smart(er) router (and those aren't cheap), or you could configure your web server as a reverse proxy (which is more complex).
With a gateway-firewall-router with decent server-grade capabilities, I'd likely move the public-facing web server stuff to a box in a DMZ (as that "bastion" server is the most likely to be breached, particularly if it's running a web content management system or other services) and configure the gateway-firewall-router as a VPN server end-point.  I'd expect the "bastion host" box would get breached, but the DMZ would keep it contained.  The VPN is the path into your internal network, and avoids exposing more protocols and services than necessary; more paths for attacks.
If you want to configure DNS within your network to reference a different IP address than your public DNS, here's some reading.  (I don't know how much you know about this networking area, so some of this may well be little more than a review for you.)  With internal DNS from your server, you can serve the internal IP address to your users and to users on the VPN, while your external DNS can translate to a different address.  That article links to another on configuring external services, as well as to a write-up on IP networks, firewalls and related details.  (It's also possible to have a mid-grade router correctly process the external IP address and "reflect" it back into your network.)
And if you want to obfuscate your domain, use "example.com", "example.org" or "example.net".  These domains are reserved for this use.  The domain name you've specified is a real and registered domain.