Questions on DNS Zones (NET)

[zhiyi]

Hello,

I am running windows server 2003 and I have setup the DNS server role on the server pc.

I have 1 server and a few clients on the LAN. Currently, I have 'home.local' and '_msdcs.home.local' under the forward lookup zones and '192.168.2.x subnet' under the reverse lookup zones. The name of the domain I have setup is home.local. The server's name is homeserver with its ip as 192.168.2.101.

Firstly, what are dns zones used for? And also, do I need to add more zones besides the forward and reverse lookup zones?

Secondly, what does _msdcs.home.local represent?

Thirdly is for the zones, am I supposed to add the ips of all the client pcs and the server pc inside the forward and reverse lookup zones?

Lastly, when I added the server ip to the reverse lookup zone, there is a part where I have to create a new pointer and I have to enter the host portion of an IP number and the host name which corresponds with it. Is the host ip number and name the server's or clients' ?

[Brf]

You should not have to add any more zones.

When you add your client workstations to your domain using controlpanel/network/advanced/network-identification/change/domain it will put that domain name in as the DNS zone. If you wish to use a different zone name, you can change that under the "More" button on the above screen.

You should not have to add your workstations to the zones if the default setting is used under the client's TCP/IP settings in ControlPanel/Network/(Lan-connectoid)/Properties/TcpIp/Properties/Advanced/DNS which will have the "Register this connection's addresses in DNS" and the correct DNS servers are being used.