Does a DNS name have to be different than the domain name?

[Sean Lewis]

I am running NT 4.0 server, a single machine with a single IP address.

I want to register the built-in DNS as an official DNS with the
InterNIC. Must I use a DNS name that is different than the domain that
already points to the domain?

Example:

Suppose the domain name that already points to IP address
aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd is smart.com.

Can I now run a DNS on the same machine, and register it using the DNS
name of smart.com? Or must I use something like dns.smart.com, and put
a CNAME record in the DNS record to point to smart.com?

Please help me...

Thanks in advance...

Sean
se...@patentgrp.com

[Cricket Liu]

As long as smart.com points to the IP address of a name server
authoritative for smart.com, that's fine.

[D. Stussy]

On 12 Nov 1998, Sean Lewis wrote:
> I am running NT 4.0 server, a single machine with a single IP address.
>
> I want to register the built-in DNS as an official DNS with the
> InterNIC. Must I use a DNS name that is different than the domain that
> already points to the domain?
>
> Example:
>
> Suppose the domain name that already points to IP address
> aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd is smart.com.
>
> Can I now run a DNS on the same machine, and register it using the DNS
> name of smart.com? Or must I use something like dns.smart.com, and put
> a CNAME record in the DNS record to point to smart.com?

You can do that. However, it's usually good to have one nameserver elsewhere
in case your own machine(s) go down, the outside world can still resolve your
domain names. Some mail servers require resolvable names (the absence of such
is treated as spam and discarded).

[Alex Kamantauskas]

It would be a better idea to make 'dns.smart.com' an A record, since as a
nameserver it will be referenced by an NS record somewhere and the right
hand entry of an NS record cannot be a CNAME.

--
Alex Kamantauskas
Tugger Networks