Re: Confusion, chaos and more!

> LL>*And what is all this about suffixes? *
>
> Suffixes are an artefact of the DNS client. They are used when the
> DNS client translates the shorthand domain names that users supply to
> applications into the proper, fully qualified, domain names that are
> actually used at the level of the DNS protocol.
>
> LL> When do they get used? *
>
> A lot more than most people suppose. They are used whenever you
> supply a name to the DNS client that doesn't end in a full stop.
> Fully qualified domain names end in full stops. "localhost." is a
> fully qualified domain name. (It's a real top-level domain, too. See
> RFC 2606.) So too is "bing.com.". "lesterlane.example.com" is not,
> however. Neither is "www.google.com". When passed to the DNS client,
> and presuming for the sake of example that one's configured primary
> suffix is "example.net." and there are no additional suffixes,
> "localhost." and "bing.com." will be looked up just as they are.
> "lesterlane.example.com" and "www.google.com" will, in contrast, be
> first looked up as "lesterlane.example.com.example.net." and
> "www.google.com.example.net.", falling back to
> "lesterlane.example.com." and "www.google.com." (note the dots) if
> that first lookup fails.
>
> <URL:http://homepage.ntlworld.com./jonath...llard/FGA/web-
> fully-qualified-domain-name.html>

I couldn't agree more. The suffix is rudimentarily important for any
client (VPN or not) to devolve a single name query. If DHCP option 015
was set to the internal AD suffix, it will set that suffix as the
interface connection suffix, and the client side resolver will append
the suffix to a single name query, as well as if the correct internal
DNS server (the DNS internal address at the VPN office side) were used,
Lester can easily resolve names on that end. In addition, if WINS were
used, it will help to 'browse' network resources, as which many folks
assume that 'browsing' the network is DNS based, which it is not, and
is NetBIOS based, which WINS supports.

Ace