Android connection to CNAME fails

[Floaty-]

First of all I must say what a GREAT idea with ownCloud. I love it.
Used a lot on my home computers.

But... ;)
I noticed something when setting up ownCloud on my android device.
In DNS theres a CNAME owncloud.mydomain.tld pointing to realhostname.mydomain.tld
When I try to connect to the CNAME owncloud.mydomain.tld it will not connect.
So I rooted my android device and added IP and owncloud.mydomain.tld to the hosts file.
Now my android device will connect.

Does the android client send realhostname.mydomain.tld instead of the name I type in as connection name?
Apache needs owncloud.mydomain.tld to serve the correct page. Not the name it gets translated from DNS.

Windows client does not have that problem. Am I doing something wrong or is this a bug?

{"installed":"true","version":"6.0.2.2","versionstring":"6.0.2","edition":""}
Android client is version 1.5.4

[davivel]

Hi. Sorry for answering so late, I didn't notice this message :$

The ownCloud app should access to whatever IP the DNS resolver determines. The app is not trying to resolve the domain names itslef, the network library takes care of it , taking into account the network configuration in the device.

Are you able to access your ownCloud server from the web browser in the device?

[Floaty-]

Thx for answering :)

It does try to connect however the web site is the wrong one.
On my Apache server there are multiple web sites identified by their domain name.
Only 1 ip address but multiple web sites.
I have a DNS A record for www.mydomain.tld and a CNAME for owncloud.mydomain.tld that points to www.mydomain.tld
My DNS checks for and denies, if I try to make multiple A records for the same ip address.

On the Android device I can connect just fine using any browser (tried firefox, chrome and Androids browser) and another app; ES File Explorer.
Only OwnCloud app failed to connect until I rooted the device and made an entry in the hosts file.

I have since found a work-around for my DNS settings so that I don't need to root any more devices.
I create a new sub domain, a new zone that i call owncloud.mydomain.tld.
In that new zone I create a DNS A record with the name * (wildcard) and use the ip address.
Now I don't have to use the CNAME any more, and I can connect just fine with OwnCloud app.

The work-around does not fix the problem with CNAME, it just enables me to not use CNAME.

This is great for taking pictures with instant upload to OwnCloud.

I know this is not high priority, but I hope you can use this information for something.

Kind regards
Floaty

[davivel]

Ok, I had to read a bit more about DNS, but now I understand. I must admit this overpassed my knowledge about DNS.

Probably this is a bug or limitation of our current network library. We should research deeper to be sure, but as you say we cannot take this as a high priority.

I am really happy you could find a workaround. Thanks for sharing with us. Let's keep it open, maybe we can take it into account when we decide to upgrade to a more recent network library.

[mooncong]

You can lookup dns manually.

private String getCnameForHost(final String host) throws TextParseException {
        final Lookup lookup = new Lookup(host, Type.CNAME);
        lookup.run();
        if (lookup.getAnswers().length == 0) {
            return null;
        }

        String target = ((CNAMERecord) lookup.getAnswers()[0]).getTarget()
                .toString();

        return target.substring(0, target.length() - 1);
    }

[jeweloper]

Any news to this bug?

I've got a internet access with a dynamic IP. This is the reason I have to use a DDNS-Service.
The only possibility to provide my self hosted owncloud service under my private domain is to use the DDNS-domain as CNAME.

So, the workaround mentioned by Floaty doesn't work, because I have not a static IP.

Are there any plans to fix this bug or any other known workarounds?

[davivel]

I'm sorry, but as far as I know, there is not a lot of interest in this.

Summoning @owncloud/android-developers for more opinions / hands.

[jeweloper]

@davivel thanks for your feedback.
After some "investigation" I recognized, that my problem is caused by a bug of my router.
If it is a CNAME-record-domain the IPv6 DNS lookup fails by the router.
The oc-desktop-client could handle it and fallback to IPv4 connection.
In android the connection is completely broken, when there is a problem with IPv6.
So I jump to conclusions.
My workaround is to disable IPv6 in android. I hope with a new router the problems are gone.

[LukeOwlclaw]

IPv6... yes, that issue is known: #616

[michaelstingl]

In version 2.9, the ownCloud Android app switched to a new networking library. I'd assume this issue is gone. In case this happens again, please open a new issue. (too many things changed)