Internal DNS Name

[dpanattoni]

When setting up a domain in W2k or greater, DNS is automatically setup using the AD domain name. In most examples, the inner DNS name of this domain is mycompany.local.

Why would I want to specify the top domain name? Why not just leave the DNS name as mycompany?

 

[karmic]

Unless you are doing your own webhosting, you're better off leaving the mycompany.local and run it as the integrated dns for your internal network.
Even if you have an exchange server, you still do not need a fully qualified domain name.

Just make sure to enable forwarders to your isp and set your server options under dhcp.

Good luck

~ K.I.S.S - Don't make it any more complex than it has to be ~

 

[dpanattoni]

Keeping it simple is the idea here. I'll have several servers within this AD domain (mycompany). The internal DNS name will be mycompany.

My ISP provides DNS services for my external name (mycompany.com). I just didn't see a reason other than following protocol, to name my internal DNS name as mycompany.local as opposed to simply mycompany

If I understand your reply, there is no reason for the .local other than personal preference.

Thanks for the reply.

 

[karmic]

Little more than personal preference... The .local tells the server that it will be the internal DNS server for your network. you must use the full mycompany.local in your domain name.

If you use a FQDN address (mycompany.com) when you do not have a FQDN server, the result will be alot of errors on your server.



~ K.I.S.S - Don't make it any more complex than it has to be ~

 

[dpanattoni]

Why is a FQDN required internally?

 

[karmic]

FQDN is not required internally...

Some people make the mistake of using mycompany.com when they do not have a FQDN to host. This generates alot of errors. Just use the .local

~ K.I.S.S - Don't make it any more complex than it has to be ~

 

[dpanattoni]

I'm sorry, I'm not explaining myself very well.

I'm not planning on using mycompany.com internally. Originally I was planning on using mycompany.local, but I wondered why even do that? Why not just use mycompany with no .local, no . anything? Will that cause a problem? I've never seen it done.

 

[karmic]

basically, you need an extension on your domain name, could be .local, .com, .org whatever. In your case, use the .local

When you log into the domain, the workstations will only see mycompany, not mycompany.local
Maybe that's where the confusion is coming in.

~ K.I.S.S - Don't make it any more complex than it has to be ~

 

[dpanattoni]

You're correct in the fact that they would only see mycompany and not mycompany.local, unless they login using a UPN, in which case they would login as username@mycompany.local

Because of group policies that I have setup, the previous login is not displayed. Therefore the default login is LOCAL PC. Because of this, most of my users login with a UPN. My goal is to shorten the amount of typing for the users at login. If they don't have to type in .local, why make them? I've setup a test domain and server with no extension on the domain name and the users would be able to login as username@mycompany. So far, (in the test environment), I don't have any problems. But my test server is very minimal and is only being used as a DC.

You mentioned "basically, you need an extension on your domain name". Why is this needed?

 

[oceanid1]

A fully qualified domain name consists of a host and domain name, including top-level domain. For example,

http://www.tek

tips.com is a fully qualified domain name.

http://www is

the host, tek tips is the second-level domain, and.com is the top level domain.


A FQDN always starts with a host name and continues all the way up to the top-level domain name, so

http://www.tek

tips.com is also a FQDN Why? ldap depends on fqdn,Kerberos
etc.