We connect to the Internet via a University academic link, however network-wise we are isolated from the University's network - because we are a totally independant unit. Having said that we do have IP addresses that map to a University subdomain
eg. xyz.university.ac.uk
x.x.x.6 is xyz6.university.ac.uk
x.x.x.7 is xyz7.university.ac.uk
and so forth
Our Network traffic at the moment is IPX only on a Novell Netware Network, so we are not hooked up to the University's network in any way whatsoever. We just use them for an IP range.
Moving over to Windows Networking, I'm a bit concerned about naming our domain, and how it will fit into the whole scheme - since we will still want University Internet access, but we want to maintain our independance. So I'm a little unsure as to how to name our new domain.
My original idea was just to name it something like 'unit' or 'unit.net' and it would have no connection at all to the University's tree. Although I'm not sure how this will impact our Internet use later on, and since 'unit.net' is not an internet registered domain name, are there problems up ahead when setting up my DNS?
Essentially, I'm confused. How does the domain name of the network (bearing in mind we will operate a very small single domain network, of a couple of server) impact on our use of the Internet via the University link? Are they meant to be linked together so our domain has to be 'unit.university.ac.uk' and fit into their wider forest/tree - but shielded from each other using Firewalls?
I'd appreciate it if anyone could explain how the domain name and the internet domain names relate to each other, and also if they could comment on my setup and the best way to go forward with it..