W2K Server & DNS

[salmonsteak]

When installing AD on a W2K server you are prompted to enter a DNS name. Now it suggests that if you have a name registered with the internet authorities than you can use that one.

The company who requires the server has a domain name

http://www.companyname.com

that is hosted by an external provider. This domain name when typed into the URL Locater yeilds the companies website. So at that prompt I used that domain name as it suggested I do. There are no problems, the server is doing everything I intend it to do. I want to ensure that using this DNS to name my DC won't cause any complications. Can someone verify that this is fine?

 

[brontosaurus]

It's fine. Even though MS suggests now that you separate your AD domain from your Internet presence (and many learned tekkies concur), it's not a problem as long as you keep the DNS worlds apart. Security is always a concern, but proper firewalling\protection takes care of that. If you're still feeling uneasy, I would suggest setting up an SMTP/DNS host in the DMZ, that will forward all requests from the internet to the proper internal host.

 

[salmonsteak]

Thanks brontosaurus, your the first person who's been able to give me a straight answer on this. I'm sure Microsoft would have, but they wanted 245 bucks to do that.

 

[NYR]

SalmonSteak,
I configured my server the way MS suggested and all works fine. The only thing I came across was since I used my registered Domain name, I could not get to my external website domain with adding a entry in a host file pointing my web address with the IP address.

 

[Evilbart]

just a hint in case this problem arises:
if you use the same domainname for the internal network, and there is a

http://www.domainname.com

or so somewhere you have to create a host record in dns called "

http://www"

and give it the ip adres of the

http://wwwserver

on the internet (can be found through nslookup).

Personnaly I don't prefer this setup (same name): it confuses people, it messes up routing & firewall configs,
But if you know what you're doing: go for it ;-)

Bart