Force Outlook 2007/2010 to use IP Address for Exchange Server instead of host name

Question

Background

My VPN connection does not have its own Network adapter as a result all DNS queries are sent down my Internet connection. My VPN connection works fine handling requests to a specific IP address range: 192.168.x.x.

The Question

I want to specify my Server in my outlook account settings using an IP address so Outlook can connect to Exchange over my VPN. However when I change the setting it goes off finds the host names and uses that instead - as a result when trying connect over VPN cannot connect as cannot resolve the host name. How can I force it to use the IP address??

Solution

Add an entry to the Windows host file: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosts_file, which will make Windows use the IP address you specify instead of querying DNS when resolving the host.

For example:

192.168.0.254   my_exchange_server.domain.local

Works perfectly!

Comments

[SpacemanSpiff]

how about making a host file entry?

[Admin]

please tell me more..

[SpacemanSpiff]

A hostfile is used for local resolution and takes precedence of DNS, WINS, broadcast, everything. To solve a simple problem on a single computer it is more than adequate to the task. Edit C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts and put the name of your server in. Keep in mind, this will no longer resolve the public address unless you remove the entry.

[Admin]

awesome - it is only for a few developers - if you put it in an answer I can mark it as correct

[Doug S]

There's got to be a better way to do this. This hack works, but there has to be a way to force Outlook to use the IP address, instead of the local server name.