Configuring DNS to Point to Itself

DNS is installed immediately upon the closing of the Configure a DNS Server Wizard. One subtask that you should accomplish after the installation is configuring the DNS server in the TCP/IP settings to point to itself for DNS resolution, unless you have a specific reason not to do so. To accomplish this task, perform the following steps:

1. Choose Start, Control Panel, Network Connections.

2. While in Network Connections, right-click < Local Area Connection > (where Local Area Connection is the particular network adapter that is to be used on the network where DNS is implemented) and select Properties.

3. Double-click Internet Protocol (TCP/IP).

4. In the DNS Server boxes, make sure that Use the Following DNS Server Addresses is selected and then type the IP address of the DNS server into the Preferred DNS Server box.

5. If you have a hub DNS server, you can enter it into the Alternate DNS Server box.

6. Click OK and then OK again to complete the changes.

If you have installed DNS on a domain controller, all the Active Directoryintegrated zones that exist in your domain DNS will subsequently be automatically transmitted to your new DNS installation. If, however, the zones in a domain are standard, or the new server is a new DNS structure, further configuration of zones will be required.

Configure a DNS Server to Point to Itself

Previous recommendations for Windows 2000 stipulated that a root DNS server point to another DNS server as the primary name server. This recommendation was made in response to what is known as the "island" problem in Windows DNS. Administrators will take heart in the fact that Windows Server 2003 no longer is subject to this problem, and it is now recommended that you configure a DNS server to point to itself in most cases as mentioned in an earlier section on "Configuring DNS to Point to Itself."