Domain Controller... .local compared to real domains

[fhvac]

Hello, I have been recently working on a server for my volunteer ambulance corps. I just recently purchased a Windows 2003 Server. I am curious as to what to set my domain to.

We have a real .org website hosted by a paid service. So will the domain controller setup correctly if I decide to use our real .org domain?
Am I supposed to enter it as a main domain such as website.org or as a subdomain such as server.website.org.

What are the benifits of using the real domain naming convention seeing as the webserver who hosts our website has nothing to do with our operations.

Althought I would like to use the real domain becuase it looks slightly more professional than a .local domain... just my opinion.

Any help with my question will be greatly appreicated

-M

 

[ArizonaGeek]

I've run into a problem where using a companies real domain name caused problems when going to the company website. I had to tell DNS to point the website to the real website not a local domain site.

The company I am working for now is updating the domain. We are splitting our users from our production so we are using "companynameuser.com" and "companynameprod.com" for our domain names.

The internal network is completely separate from your real .org name so you can name it whatever you want just realize the problem I ran into above with the website and update your DNS accordingly and you should be ok

Cheers
Rob

 

[mrdenny]

It's recommended that you not use your internet name for your local domain name. By using the public name any potential hackers automaticlly know the domain name of your "corporate" domain. Also you end up with the DNS issues that Rob mentioned.

Denny
MCSA (2003) / MCDBA (SQL 2000) / MCTS (SQL 2005) / MCITP Database Administrator (SQL 2005)

--Anything is possible. All it takes is a little research. (Me)

http://www.mrdenny.com

 

[pgaliardo]

Just to back up mrdenny, please see the following link:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/254680/

 

[fhvac]

That is very interest to know especially when I see many example using .com etc...

I wonder what corporations actually use this.

Thanks alot for your reply, now I guess I am gonna have to change the domain controller name.

Should I follow some of the instructions online or just rebuild the whole server?

Thanks

 

[fhvac]

Sorry about the bad spelling, i'v been up for a while, i really don't talk that bad, honest

 

[58sniper]

I manage probably 550+ servers in hundreds of domains, and I can count on one hand the number of AD forests and domains that use something OTHER than .local

No problems with them. As mentioned above, if you use the Internet domain name, you have to tweak DNS a little.

Pat Richard, MCSE MCSA:Messaging CNA MVP
Want to know how email works? Read for yourself -

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2821.txt