Creating Internal DNS Domain Names

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Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

When creating names for your internal domains, use the following guidelines:

  • If your organization has an Internet presence, use names relative to your registered Internet DNS domain name. For example, if you have registered the Internet DNS domain name contoso.com for your organization, use a DNS domain name such as corp.contoso.com for your intranet domain name.

  • Do not use the name of an existing corporation or product as your domain name.

  • Do not use top-level Internet domain names, such as .com, .net, .org, .us, .fr, .gr, on your intranet. Using top-level Internet domain names on your intranet can result in name resolution errors for computers on your network that are connected to the Internet.

  • Do not use acronyms or abbreviations for domain names. The business units that these acronyms represent can be difficult for users to recognize.

  • Do not use business unit or division names for domain names. Business units and other divisions change periodically and the domain names can become obsolete or misleading.

  • Do not use geographic names that are difficult to spell and remember.

  • Avoid extending your DNS domain name hierarchy more than five levels from the internal or DNS root domain. Limiting the extent of the domain name hierarchy reduces administrative costs.

If you are deploying DNS in a private network and do not plan to create an external namespace, it is recommended that you register the DNS domain name that you create for your internal domain. If you do not register the name and later attempt to use it on the Internet, or connect to a network that is connected to the Internet, you might find that the name is unavailable.