Hi, I have a windows dedicated server running windows server 2003. I'm wanting to setup multiple domains on it. I have been assigned three IP addresses, two for the name servers and one which I assume is for a website. I can buy more IP addresses but if possible I would like to share the one address across multiple sites. I've been using the 'setup your server' app and following a few online tutorials but I can't get it to work. I think my main problem is with setting up the DNS records correctly. I have rolled back every change I've made so now I'm starting from fresh. Can someone guide me through how to setup multiple domains using the same website IP address and name servers? The server is running IIS6 (which I use locally all the time.) Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Yikes that is a tall order. First it sounds to me you have a NAT problem not a DNS problem. Are you trying to use one of your DC as a Gateway to the Internet? If so then you will need to configure the ROUTING SERVICES, DHCP Services and NAT services in addition the the DNS. Personally I would never do this unless I was setting up a PROXY server or a Honeypot because this is a huge security risk. In addition you will need two NICs one for the public IP and one for the private. You best option is to setup a Hardware Gateway like a Cisco Router and enable it's NAT for your public IP. Ideally you would setup One router as a Gateway -> One Firewall -> One Router as a Router. This way you establish a DMZ between the two routers where you can hang your Web and Email servers. You will then want to set a DNS forwarder on your edge router. As for your Server. Yes you will want a server with DNS. I would setup one server (if not 2 for redundancy) with DNS. Then set its DNS to the IP address of your DNS Router. This way no one can do a zone transfer of your internal DNS. One you have the DNS roles setup on your servers it is time for DCPROMO to put your DC on. After you ave established a DC and an AD (be careful not to use common DNSs for your internal network like .COM, use something longer than 3 characters like .LOCAL) then install the DHCP role on atleast one of the servers. (If you install DHCP on 2 computers make sure your set the scopes not to over lap or you might consider subnetting) With this kind of setup you should be golden. This does not cover your switches and ARP but that is a different story. I never recommend people try to setup a network unless they have basic understanding of network design and ISO Layers.

stoink I think you are confusing domain name like an internet domain name for web hosting vs domains in Active Directory. You can have multiple domains in AD and not need public ip addresses. This leads me to think you are only asking about web hosting. First thing you need to understand is you can't just create your own domain names. You need to hookup with your isp and find domain names you want that are not used and then register them. This is a cost associated with this. Next item to understand is you can't do anything without your ISP. The isp has to register those domain names in its dns which then replicates to all internet based dns servers. You might want to start with a web hosting book to guide/educate you in your endeavors.

Basically the question is what do you want to do? If you want to host a website from your server (for example mydomain.com) then simply all you need to do is tell the DNS server at your domain administrator (where you bought your domain) what IP you want mydomain.com to lead to (and that would be your servers IP). If you have multiple domains and you want to point them to the same website, simply do the above for all domains. And you have to make sure port 80 (or 443 if a secure site is running) is open through firewalls or such things you might have. Use www.canyouseeme.org from the server and look at port 80 to see if it can be reached. If you want to host clients on this server, it's another story.