Complete Beginner Issues with Domain Naming, Laptop Access, Printers, etc.

[NW2468]

Alright, so I have a bunch of issues to bring up and while I search around forums, if anyone can point me in the right direction for some of these things, that'd be great.

We're planning a Server 08 install, running Exchange 2007. This will be a single domain controller as well as our single e-mail server.


Domain Name
We have a domain registered, let's call it company.com with a 3rd party company. My plan was to point the records to the public IP address of our server. Will it matter if the Domain name of the server is company.com as well? During a SBS 2003 Server install, when we tried naming the domain company.com, it wouldn't allow us, so we ended up naming it company.local

Should the domain on the server be named the same as the domain we have registered through the 3rd party company, or are the two not related at all?


Laptops
The last time we attempted to run the company on a domain, we had problems with laptops accessing the domain and then being brought home. Users could not log into the Windows account they used at work, so we ended up having two Windows Accounts, one for work and one for home - which, needless to say, is extremely inconvenient. Can a windows user on a laptop login to the domain at work and login to the same exact id at home? Is there any configuration necessary to accomplish this?


Printers
We have printers installed throughout the office, some on servers, some on PCs (shared) etc. Would the best practice be to install all network servers on the Server 2008 machine to be authenticated through the domain?


Thanks for the help!

 

[RSchwarz]

I use sub domains. I use one for the DC and one forthe Exchange server.

I've never heard of that problem. How are users with laptops connecting from home? We use VPN to connect to the company lan and I always use the same laptop from work and home with same login.

You can leave the printers setup as you have them.

 

[NW2468]

It was a while ago, but I think the problem was when the laptop was off of the network and the user would try to login, it would say something about not being able to find the domain, so it wouldn't allow them to log into that windows user. So we had to create a second windows user so they could work at home (not dialing in on VPN, over their own network).

I'll have to read up on sub domains to see how they work, thanks for the help so far!

 

[NW2468]

As far as subdomains go, would you just have abc.com registered with a 3rd party company, then the domain for the server could be

server.abc.com

but why would you need to give a domain name to both the DC and the Exchange server, are they both on separate domains? In our situation, since Exchange is running on the DC, would we just have a single domain (server.abc.com) and have other servers (i.e. File), printers join that domain?

 

[NW2468]

Bumping up to see if any more advice can be given, thanks for the help.