MOSS 2007 External Web Resolution Issues/Alternate Access Mappings

So when building a MOSS site, you cannot simply assign an IP say 64.24.232.177 and then make a DNS A record say moss1.yourdomain.com point to it, then in IIS configure that MOSS Web Site to run on say, port 80 for example.

No, that is not good enough, you have to tell Sharepoint about it -- go into Central Administration, then there is a slew of different alternate access mappings you can configure for the site.

There are different zones (dont you just love IIS/Internet Explorer?!?):
default, intranet, public, extranet, custom (blah blah)

All you really need to do to enable your moss site to be viewed externally (assuming you set the DNS as explained above) is:

1. In IIS, configure the host header for the site (right click it go to properties, Advanced, Add the DNS name i.e. moss1.yourdomain.com in the host header box).

and

2. In MOSS Central Administration, Operations, Alternate Access Mappings add a public URL as http://moss1.yourdomain.com (I just added it into the default zone and erased what was there -- the http://hcmoss02 which is the internal name of the server)

VOILA you are done. Now your site resolves externally. Take a coffee break.