Changing URL Mapping Access in WSS 3.0 / MOSS 2007 (SharePoint)

This blog site is mainly written for Programming Code and Scripts, but as a Systems Administrator/Engineer, I deal with very common Sysadmin type issues. This particular issue deals with SharePoint 2007 and a common issue of host headers, and configuration of alternative access mappings.  This is a common problem for many SharePoint Admins across the globe, and here is an easy guide to remedy the problem.

Here are the steps to change the URL/ host header in SharePoint 2007 or WSS 3.0: 

1. Open Central Administration.
2. Browse to "Operations" and then to "Alternate Access Mappings".
3. Click on the dropdown displaying "Show All", select "Change Alternate Access Mapping Collection".
4. Choose the URL you wish to modify.
5. Select "Edit Public URLs".
6. Change the URL's for the zones you have defined in this case change default from http:// to http:// and click save.
7. Update IIS to reflect these changes made to SharePoint. Open IIS Manager, expand the nodes and locate the web site.
8. Right click and select properties.
9. Click on the Web Site tab 
10. Click on advanced.
11. Modify the host header to the new value.
12. Click OK and close IIS Manager. 
13. Perform an IISRESET (Start > Run > IISRESET)
14. Test page by browsing to URL
15. If the page fails proceed to ->create a DNS entry
16. Remote into DNS server
17. Go to Admin Tools->DNS
18. In Forward Lookup Zone, go to the zone you want to create custom name
19. Right click on zone
20. Add Alias, put in the custom FQDN or site name
21. Wait for the DNS to replicate or force replication
22. On local machine run ipconfig /flushdns from command line

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