DNS > How to Creating DNS Computer Names

It is important to develop a practical DNS computer-naming convention for computers on your network. This enables users to remember the names of computers on public and private networks easily, and therefore facilitates access to network resources.
Use the following guidelines when creating names for the DNS computers in your Windows Server 2003 DNS infrastructure:

• Select computer names that are easy for users to remember.
• Identify the owner of a computer in the computer name. For example, john-doe indicates that John Doe uses the computer, and pubs-server indicates that the computer is a server that belongs to the Publications department.
• Alternatively, select names that describe the purpose of the computer.
• Do not use character case to convey the owner or purpose of a computer. DNS is not case-sensitive.
• Match the Active Directory domain name to the primary DNS suffix of the computer name. The primary DNS suffix is the part of the DNS name that appears after the host name. Use unique names for all computers in your organization.
• Do not assign the same computer name to different computers in different DNS domains.
• Use ASCII characters to ensure interoperability with computers running versions of Windows earlier than Windows 2000. For DNS computer names, use only the characters A–Z, a–z, 0–9, and the hyphen (-).