Newbie: Want to set up a 5-computer Domain w/Active Dir.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Larry Woods
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Larry Woods

Hi,

This is going to be a SIMPLE configuration: 1-Domain server and 4 "user"
desktops. All on a LAN. I have set up my Domain server w/AD but I just had
to guess on what to name the domain. They suggested some sort of
xxx.xxx.com type of name but I am afraid that could conflict with some
"real" URL, won't it? And, after I get the domain defined, HOW to I
reference AD from the other desktops?

Thanks for ANY help.

Larry Woods
 
you can use xxx.local instead of xxx.com, as Microsoft
suggested, if you don't have a registed domain name.
 
Any way that I can rename it now that I have built AD using ".com"?

TIA,

Larry Woods
 
-----Original Message-----
Any way that I can rename it now that I have built AD using ".com"?

TIA,

Larry Woods




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Click to expand...
Larry,

There is really no need to rename it! You see, what you
have is an "INTERNAL" or "PRIVATE" situation. Assuming
that things are set up correctly, there should not be any
*easy* way of anyone accessing your Active Directory from
the outside.

You would simply need to use Forwarders ( in the DNS MMC )
and enter the two or three IP Addresses of your ISP's DNS
Servers ( naturally I am assuming that your ISP is taking
care of this for you! ).

You INTERNAL DNS Servers would take care of name
resolution inside your internal LAN. Any requests for
anything outside your LAN would be "forwarded" to those IP
Addresses in the Forwarders tab. Please note: there are
also the Root Hints that will take care of this should you
decide that you do not want to use Forwarders. This is
one of the more passionately dicussed issues in the DNS
News Group ( Forwarders vs. Root Hints ). I personally
like to use Forwarders. There are others who agree.
There are also others who disagree! The choice is yours
to make. Either way, "outside" name resolution will
occur. And, you do indeed need to delete the "." zone
inside the Forward Lookup Zone. If you do not, you will
not be able to resolve "outside" names.

Now, there is one more thing to do! If your internal dns
domain name is "yourdomain.com" and your registered Domain
Name is "yourdomain.com" and you go to any of the clients
and enter www.yourdomain.com you wilol be brought to the
DC! What you need to do is to enter a "Host" Record (
or "A" Record ) in your FLZ named "www" - without the
quotation marks - and enter the Public IP Address of your
web site. This will then allow your internal users to
actually go to your company's PUBLIC web site!

HTH,

Cary
 
Thank, Cary,

Here is additional information: My domain server and the desktops are in a
LAN within my shop. No outside ISP is involved in this. Just me.
(Although I do have cable modem access to the 'Net) I am using static IP
addresses. When I created my DNS (Win 2000 Server) and AD I ended up with a
name:

dnsserver.mydomain.xxx.com

(Rightly or wrongly!)

I will be going through your suggestions later today but wonder whether this
additional information will help you...

TIA,

Larry
 
I am not sure but I think you can tell me.... I have a server and a few (4)
workstations. I set up the server with DNS and AD. As far as the site is
concerned my "world" is the set of workstations and the server. BUT, I have
a cable modem so I have DNS addresses defined in TCP/IP to access the remote
server for Internet connection. So, will my "local" DSN server and my
workstations think that they are communicating with multiple DNS servers?
And, won't this affect my AD setup? I have dug through the AD doc and they
don't seem to acknowledge such a situation.

TIA,

Larry Woods
 
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