Issue: I have 3 low-end servers (all win 2003 standard) and 3 IP(s) from my ISP. I am trying to setup my own web and mail servers. Step: I make 2 servers as primary and secondary DNS, 1 as web and mail server. I create a Host(A) www.xxx-domain.com Problem: How do I create a MX record, and a CNAME with blank parent domain name so that users can go to my website without typing in “www”. I tried to add them, it gave me an error: “A new record cannot be created An alias (CNAME) record cannot be added to this DNS name, The DNS name contains records that are incompatible with CNAME record.” See anyone can help here! don't reply if you don't know what I am talking about. Thank you very much!

Does this help any? "A CNAME record creates a name and makes it an alias of another name. The alias inherits all records associated with the original name. This means that, if the original has an MX record, the alias gains that MX record also. So to make this closer to working, you'd change the CNAME to this: anotherDomain.com. CNAME MainDomain.com. However, unfortunately, the CNAME record given above is itself against the rules. There are three restrictions that determine when you can or can't use a CNAME record: 1) A CNAME record can't have the same name as any other record. (The "name" field is the one on the left.) 2) A name that has a CNAME record can't have subdomains. So if alias.domain has a CNAME record, sub.alias.domain is illegal for use anywhere. 3) A name that has a CNAME record can't appear in any other record, such as an MX or NS record. The exception is another CNAME record: CNAME records can be chained, so that one.domain is an alias of two.domain, which is in turn an alias of three.domain. So in this case, since anotherDomain.com is delegated from com, anotherDomain.com at the very least has two NS records and an SOA record*. Thus a CNAME record violates the first of the above restrictions, and may also violate the second and third, depending on what other records are present in the domain file. However, it does work if the CNAME record looks more like this: pop.virtual.com. CNAME MainDomain.com. so long as pop.virtual.com is not a delegated subdomain. ____________________________________________________________________ Chris Buxton cbuxton@menandmice.com Men & Mice http://www.menandmice.com Makers of: QuickDNS Pro " From http://www.digitalpoint.com/lists/1... I read it wrong and answer it wrong too. So get off my case you peanut.

Sorry getting back so late. I was on another ASP.NET project. After spending hours trying to understand what you posted still not quite understand. OK, let's make it simple, and throw all these technical terms behind. If you have all following: 1. A active directory with internal DNS servers (mycompany.com) 2. Three computers for external web, dns, Exchange server Internal means behind firewall. How would you set these things up, and how would you configure you DNS so that INTERNAL user and EXTERNAL users can go to my company website with OR without type in “www”. Also, internal users can receive and send emails internally and externally. Exchange server I think should be place within the activie directory. I get stuck configuring the DNS. Please help if you can. Thank you very much, your responds are very much appreciated.