Question : Creating a DNS host entry for a domain name using Widnows DNS server

Hi,

I've been asked to configure our DNS server so that requests to our domain name will go to our web site. Before I go any further I will explain our DNS setup. We have a set of two AD integrated DNS servers for all company internal DNS requests. We also have a set of Widnows based DNS server to handle all externally originating DNS requests and these DNS servers only contain records for our publicly accessible servers. These DNS servers are not part of our AD schema.

Now, currently we have a www.domain.com entry for our webiste, but I have been asked if we can have it setup so that if people just type our domain name into their browser then they are taken to our website.

eg. http://www.domain.com or http://domain.com

So, basically they would lke www.domain.com and domain.com to load our website. Having a quick look and the windows MMC DNS tool it seems to indicate that if I leave the Name field blank when creating a new host entry that it will use the parent domain. This appears to be what I want, I suppose I'm just after confirmation or if there is another way of doing this. Additionally, if this is the way to do it, is it safe to do it on the DNS servers that are AD entergrated?

tia

Craig

Answer : Creating a DNS host entry for a domain name using Widnows DNS server

If your AD domain is also called domain.com (i.e. same as your web domain) then you will not be able to change the AD integrated DNS servers. On those DNS servers that are handling requests within your AD domain, the host record with a blank name (which appears in the list as "same as parent folder") must point to a Domain Controller. The record is created automatically during setup of AD and you should not change it.

On your other DNS servers, the ones that handle external queries, there should be no problem adding a Host or CNAME record with the name left blank as described above.