Setting Up a Name Server and Hosting Web Sites with Windows Server 2003
A lot of services allow you to manage your own domain name system (DNS) records for the domains you register. Almost any domain registrar has a web-based software console that you can use to manage these records. However, these services aren’t free. Windows Server 2003 can provide the same services for no cost whatsoever. Using Windows Server 2003 to manage your name server is even more beneficial if you host multiple web sites; you gain more control over the process—and the information stored about your servers—and you don’t need to go through a third party.
You’ll gain the biggest advantage from hosting multiple web sites using Internet Information Services (IIS), with each site having the same IP address. This process, called multi-homing, only works if you have your own DNS server in the same domain (or domain forest) as the IIS web server. Why bother? Because multi-homing web sites reduces hardware costs; no extra network cards are needed for each new site.