Domain Name

[Gibson335]

Does anyone use something like .local or .internal for their LAN domain name?

 

The more I read about this the more confusing it gets. I've read two TechNet reports where one says yes and the other says no, I've read widely differing opinions on it on blogs and sites everywhere...so, once again, I thought I'd ask you, the users...if you do use these, has it ever caused you any problems, or do you now foresee potential problems and wish you hadn't used it.

 

Thanks.

[Danp]

.internal here

[sted]

we used to use .local BUT apple stuff can be a bit awkward with this recently have switched when starting from scratch to .internal. As far as i know unless you need all of say school.net to be findable on the internet (and you can use aliases anyway for this) your probably better off as you only have to dns for your local pcs you dont have to be authorative for school.net to the world

 

This is my understanding but it may be wrong

[IrritableTech]

We used school.local for our AD domain name. This did cause us a few minor issues a year later when adding Macs (who by default use the DNS name MACNAME.local) but nothing major. At other schools I've used .lan to bypass any of these issues.

[Steve21]

.internal

 

Steve

[bwestlake]

.local

 

but be careful with macs

[Joanne]

I use .internal when setting up new servers in my primaries. It is generally good practice to put something on the end!

[mrbios]

.local but no intention of using macs. We have two in our library but i get the feeling they're more "for show" than anything else, we don't generally support them and they're not on the domain.

[Quackers]

We use our full .sch.uk domain name, then use split zone DNS. We use to use .local but prefer what we do now.

[fairm010]

.local in all 12 Schools as nothing is visible outside. All primaries so no Macs planned.

 

Matt

[AngryTechnician]

Ours is .internal

 

Pretty sure that is standard practice for RM-configured domains, which ours was originally.

[XiJ]

.local for us but may consider move to .internal

[Gibson335]

.local for us but may consider move to .internal

 

Any particular reason why you'd move from one to the other?

[featured_spectre]

HMRC use

 

*.local.hmrc.gov.uk

 

* could be wiki, internal, helpdesk, televantage, jabber

[XiJ]

Sorry, I meant for new installs really.

 

Although it could be that some of our schools want to integrate Macs at some point - they are standalone at the moment.

[SovietRussia]

We use our full .sch.uk domain name, then use split zone DNS. We use to use .local but prefer what we do now.

 

+1 for schoolname.sch.uk

[Gibson335]

Sorry, I meant for new installs really.

 

Although it could be that some of our schools want to integrate Macs at some point - they are standalone at the moment.

 

Ah - my understanding was that the Mac issue with .local had been resolved...is there still a problem that you're aware of?

[XiJ]

Ah - my understanding was that the Mac issue with .local had been resolved...is there still a problem that you're aware of?

 

Ah, it's been a while since I heard of it - didn't even really look into it fully. So it may well have been resolved. A post higher up indicates its not a big issue.

[cpjitservices]

.local here too.

 

Any new domains I build I'll be using ".internal".

[mac_shinobi]

Ah - my understanding was that the Mac issue with .local had been resolved...is there still a problem that you're aware of?

 

Not sure if its resolved now although that issue was down to .local conflicting with bonjour as bonjour used .local to communicate ( or something along those lines ) which caused conflicts with a .local type domain

 

AntonnioRocco would be a good person to ask

[DSapseid]

When i had my macs put in last summer we had issues with my .local domain name.

[MatthewL]

.local here and most schools unless part of a bigger group tend to be the same.

 

I have seen .int used too and .lan

 

If I was to build a domain up again I would use the same as web and then when users are in and out of the LAN if we allowed it something could be accessed via the same URL, no confusion then.

[localzuk]

I'm not sure why, but our LEA structure uses 'schXXXX.somerset.gov.uk'. The networks are not linked via AD etc... There is a WAN but schools are basically silos on it.

[RichB]

.local here. No issues (touch wood)

 

Had Apple issues in the past but cant for 100% say due to .local

[ascott2]

Microsoft's best practice used to be that your AD domain was different to your external so hence .local and .internal domain names. In recent years they have changed their mind and "Microsoft strongly recommends this option" of using a subdomain of your external domain name, and using split brain DNS you don't have to make the name publicly available. Edited July 4, 2013 by ascott2