DNS Configuration
On the Internet (or on any TCP/IP network, for that matter), every device is represented by an IP address— using a four-part dotted-decimal notation, such as 192.168.0.1. A device with a TCP/IP address is called a host and is assigned a host name, which is a character-based name that is easier for humans to recognize and remember than its numeric IP address. The format of the host name is hostname.domain.com. When a host name identifies a resource on a TCP/IP network, computers must translate that host name into an IP address because computers communicate using only IP addresses. This translation is called name resolution.
There are two basic methods of resolving host names to IP addresses on a TCP/IP network. The first involves using a file called a Hosts file. The Hosts file is a single, flat file that simply lists hosts on a network and each host's IP address. To use the Internet Mail Service (IMS) with a Hosts file, you must enter into that file the domain name and IP address of the hosts to which the IMS may need to transfer messages. As you might imagine, this process can be time-consuming.
The second method of resolving names is more efficient. It involves the Domain Name System (DNS), a hierarchical, distributed database of host names and IP addresses. In order to run Exchange 2000 Server, you must have already installed Windows 2000 Active Directory and DNS services on your network. Although host files are still available in Windows 2000, given the dynamic nature of the new implementation of DNS, there are few times when you'll want to use them.
You are likely to want outside SMTP hosts to be able to transfer messages to your SMTP service. To enable this capability, you must create two records in the DNS database so that those outside hosts can resolve your server's IP address. The first record you must create is an address record, or A record for your Exchange 2000 server. This can be registered dynamically with DNS in Windows 2000. The second record is a mail exchanger record, or MX record, which is a standard DNS record type used to designate one or more hosts that process mail for an organization or site. This record must be entered manually in your DNS tables.
MORE INFO
This chapter provides a simplistic discussion of configuring TCP/IP and DNS, but these topics encompass a monstrous amount of material. If you need more information about using TCP/IP and DNS in the Windows 2000 environment, see Microsoft Windows 2000 Server Administrator's Companion by Charlie Russel and Sharon Crawford (Microsoft Press, 2000).
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Pages: 193