Choosing Domain Names for Active Directory

From the beginning of Windows 2000, I was taught when choosing a domain name for a new Active Directory domain, to use a made up extension like ".LAN" or ".LOCAL ", so as not to confuse things with the registered Internet name. So if a company's outside, Internet email and web domain name was ACME.com, the internal Active Directory domain name would be ACME.lan. Obviously only ACME.com was registered on the Internet.

Recently, I have found that the internal Active Directory domain name should also be registered on the Internet. Microsoft documentation recommends registering the name on the Internet simply because if the company ever merges with another company this insures that the two networks will have different domain names. I've also found that Citrix Secure Gateway will not work correctly (I have verified this with Citrix technical support.) in certain incidents if the internal domain name has not been registered. A different technician friend of mine has also told me certain VPN's will not work without the internal domain name being registered on the Internet as well.

So I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations on this. What are your policies when choosing a name for a new internal Windows 2000 Active Directory domain? Do you register it on the Internet? Do you make it the same name as the company's email and web addresses, or register a totally different name instead? If anyone can give me any other information on this, particularly specific documenation or websites, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks,
John

 

Interesting information John. Afraid I can't offer anything concrete but the concept makes good sense.

If you run into any good information, how about posting a link. I did a few google searches but didn't turn up anything. Maybe I need different search terms.

Especially the citrix and VPN bits are good to know.