It’s amazing how a simple thing may have a big impact. By just doing a small action in the Web Application configuration page, you can avoid a lot of complicated configuration in your network.

SharePoint 2010 (and MOSS 2007 also) always tries to be your friend. I mean, it tries to answer configuration question for you. One of it happens when creating a new Web Application.

Look this screenshot.

This is a default screen when creating a Web Application. SharePoint choose randomly a port number and leave the Host Header empty. I’ve seen a countless time this kind of default configuration leave like this by a SharePoint Admin. And then, the Network Administrator made special configurations in the Firewall, the Network switch and the Load balancer to make it work with a standard 80 port for the users. What a waste of time!

Why, oh why not configuring it with the port 80 right away? Some of these administrators said they weren’t aware that it was possible. Well, the Host Header field is the answer.

Domain Name System (DNS) are made to give users a friendly way to browse websites. Not only it applies over the Internet, it can be useful in a private network. Because SharePoint 2010 Web Application is, by definition, a WEB… Application, it’s a best practice to assign a DNS to each of them. Thus, everything in the network will be standard. No firewall special configuration. And even more, sometimes Firewalls do some filtering of standard port like 80, 443, 25, 21,… So keeping the SharePoint Web Application on a standard port is a good idea.

Now, in this second screenshot, here’s the good approach.