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Let's asume, that I own the domain "example.com" and I should configure an internal subnet for my company.

I read, that when you want to install Active Directory, DNS and DHCP in an internal network you shouldn't use a TLD like .local, .intra or .lan, because with gTLD there could be a collision with already registered TLDs.

So the best pratice would be to create a subdomain, like "intra.example.com" for internal purpose only.

But when I create a subdomain on a Windows Server, this subdomain is accessable from outside. So what can I do, that this subdomain is only accessable from inside the network.

Alternatively, I also read that the following TLDs are reserved:

.test

.example

.invalid

.localhost

Would it be a proper setup, to have a domain like "company.com" for external purpose and a domain like "company.localhost" for internal purpose?

Thank you in advance.

Wubi
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    `But when I create a subdomain on a Windows Server, this subdomain is accessable from outside,` - Why would it be accessible from the outside? – joeqwerty Sep 30 '17 at 15:55
  • When you have a DNS-Server in the DMZ on create a subdomain on this server. This subdomain is accessible from outside, isn't it? – Wubi Sep 30 '17 at 15:57
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    Only if you make it accessible. Why would it be in the DMZ anyway? – joeqwerty Sep 30 '17 at 16:08

1 Answers1

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You still need perimeter security, including a firewall that does not let anything outside your LAN touch your internal services including the directory. And do not put internal resources in public DNS.

Use a domain you purchased from a public registrar. Active Directory could be corp.example.com and your public web presence www.example.com. Or maybe you grab different TLDs and your domain is example.net but your public presence is example.com.

None of those reserved TLDs are appropriate for a production service. Technically, they do not conflict with other uses, but it is poor branding to associate your organization with "testing" or "invalid".

John Mahowald
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