Windows Server 2003 Domain Naming Question

ITdude

Hi,

I was curious when creating a new domain and a new domain controller with Windows Server 2003, what do most of you use for the suffix in the domain name: .local or .com?

I was just curious what the general consensus was and if you chose .local was it to distinguish the external domain from the internal or did you have other reasons. If you typically use .com what is your reasoning there, too.

Also, do you have any preference on netbios naming or just accept the default given unless it is greater than 15 characters and it truncates the name?

Thanks for the input. I hope that I did not put you to sleep!

WanBoy67

.local

I used to use .SuperfragilisticEspialadocious but it got a bit too long to type so now I use .local

ITdude

cute!!!

blargoe

Most companies I've worked for go ahead and use the public domain name .com, with maybe a third using either .local or a different .com

bighornsheep

There was an article before that talked about this. There are several things to consider.

Is the domain name public? What kind of network are you running? Windows only? Windows+Mac? Windows+Linux?...

I believe the .local as recommended by MS has known problems with Mac but I've never tried myself, since I took the suggestion and used .lan instead.

ITdude

The domain name is a public registered domain. The network is a Windows Server 2003 AD domain and for now and most likely all clients are/will be Windows XP or Vista. There is a slight chance of a Linux box later on. I will be running SQL Server and in the near future Exchange Server.

MS recommends .local as a default on setup. It just seems to me I have seen mostly the public .com domain used internally exactly as it is used externally.

I just wanted to avoid DNS hassles etc down the road and was curious what most found to be the best practice.

Thanks

whose suggestion was it to use .lan?

dtlokee

There's a number of problems that you can run into using a unified naming scheme (where the internal naming is the same as the companies external naming) One of the ones I run into frequently is where a small company has an ISP hosting their website/email and they use their registered domain name internally. Also if you plan to host your own Exchange server keep in mind the issues you'll have with email addresses (internally they'll be xxx@xxx.lan and extrnally it will be different, that'll confuse the heck out of the users.)

ITdude

so are you saying it is better to use .com internally because of Exchange issues? At this moment the website IS being hosted externally but that might change in the not too distant future---perhaps....

I am installing this DC today, so need to decide what to do pretty quickly beforte promoting the box to DC.

Thanks

bighornsheep

This might help too:

http://techexams.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=155450#155450

ITdude

Thanks. Since my isp is hosting my DNS externally it appears that using .com internally with a forwarder to the isp DNS servers might be fine, yes?

dtlokee

If you use .com internally you'll need to add a host record for your www, pop and smtp for your ISP. Also you'll need to add MX records, a forwarder won't work because the server already has a domain for the .com so it won't forward to the ISP. If the ISP ever changes the IP addresses of your server you'll need to update the records you made manually.

ITdude

okay so are you saying that using .com will be problematic or just that these are the necessary steps to make it work?

The server is installing as we speak but is still a stand alone and not to the point of DCPROMO etc.

So, I need to make a call pretty soon after it does some updates and finishes the initial install

Is this what you would recommend in my scenario?

blargoe

For your internal DNS, you just have to manually add A records to any resources that are being hosted by your ISP (unless it's email, then you would also have to add MX records for your domain). It isn't as big of a deal as it is made out to be.

ITdude

that is what I thought too, so I went with .com I spoke with a sys admin who is running an enterprise nnetwok and he said almost exactly what you said.

That is what they do too.

thanks

dtlokee

Just keep on top of the A, CNAME, and MX records you create because web host providers have a habit of changing their IP addressing. If they do ou'll need to update the address you are using. best practice will be to use as few A records as you can and use CNAME for any additional ones you may need, then if you need to update the IP addresses you only need to hit the A records.

ITdude

Thanks agin for the tips I really appreciate it!!!!I will keep all that in mind.

Next on the hit parade is installing SQL Server 2005. This will be a new experience for me and hopefully not a headache!