1420 Views 4 Replies Latest reply: Dec 25, 2013 7:10 AM by AxeBox360
AppleStefan Level 1 Level 1 (0 points)
AppleStefan Oct 30, 2013 2:01 AM

After using Firefox for many years, I decided that it's time to give Safari another try. There's however a minor issue that is bothering me. I've quite an extensive local network, have my own DNS server, and Safari ignores the local domain (lastname.ch) that is configured at the level of the dhcp server.

 

On all software except Safari url's like "printer" (for my network printer/scanner), synology1, or webcam2 resolve to the ip addresses that are behind printer.lastname.ch, synology1.lastname.ch, webcam2.lastname.ch, etc. However, in Safari I really have to type the full domain or it's taking me to Apple's competitor Google.

 

Any ideas on how to fix this issue?


MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013), OS X Mavericks (10.9)
  • AppleStefan Level 1 Level 1 (0 points)
    AppleStefan Oct 31, 2013 2:54 PM
    Re: Safari ignores local domain in response to AppleStefan

    Anyone?

  • jblumel Level 1 Level 1 (10 points)
    jblumel Nov 11, 2013 12:33 PM
    Re: Safari ignores local domain in response to AppleStefan

    I don't think there is currently a fix for this in Safari

     

    The behavior used to be that, if you typed in a value where a name lookup failed, it would append .com to it and try a lookup, and if that failed, prepend www. and try a lookup for that (I believe that was the sequence, but it's been a while since it behaved that way). If any of those succeeded, it would load the site you wanted. This behavior allowed it to use the domain search value(s) from /etc/resolve.conf and hostnames and aliases from /etc/hosts.

     

    Now, the behavior is apparently that if the value you enter doesn't "look like" a valid hostname, it will skip the lookups altogether and do a search using your default search provider (Safari Preferences/General). It's pretty annoying if, for example, you have a bunch of /etc/hosts entries so you can just type in a short alias and have it quickly load a site (in which case the search results are usually worthless to you). Firefox seems to at least go through the process of a lookup before sending you off to the search provider, whereas, Safari apparently skips the lookup if the value doesn't look like a hostname..

     

    The only workaround seems to be to load the site/page once using the full hostname, then, for subsequent access, use the Top Hits section from the suggestions list to pick the url you actually want. Often, if it's a relatively unique name, it may be pre-selected for you. I found it works best if Safari Preferences/Privacy/Prevent search engine from providing suggestions is checked.

     

    So, for example, once you load 'webcam2.lastname.ch' once, you swhould be able to start typing 'webcam2' and that site should show up in the Top Hits, perhaps even preselected, so you can just hit enter. How well this works depends on how many other sites you go to with similar names and how frequently you go to them.

  • tlrtlr Level 1 Level 1 (0 points)
    tlrtlr Nov 18, 2013 10:02 AM
    Re: Safari ignores local domain in response to jblumel

    It used to work in iOS on iPad but as of 7.x somewhere it no longer uses the local domain given through dhcp.   It even ignores my explicit <host>.xyz.lan requests and searches for <host> using google instead.

     

    Completely unusable in that respect.   Please fix!

  • AxeBox360 Level 1 Level 1 (15 points)
    AxeBox360 Dec 25, 2013 7:10 AM
    Re: Safari ignores local domain in response to AppleStefan

    I have this same problem.  I run a number of local network services that are managed using Web consoles. Their IP addresses are all nicely mapped to easy to remember host names, but Safari only works if I use the IP address or FQDN for the address. Not cool and not user-friendly.