At the moment our domain’s DNS zone is hosted on provider’s external DNS servers but we are looking forward hosting our DNS zone on our own external DNS servers. Is it good idea to use Windows Server 2003 R2 as external DNS server or this is not recommended choice? If not what software would be recommended and why? We need server which allows dynamic updates and is simple to manage. Now we have 2 Windows Server 2003 R2 DNS servers (Active Directory integrated) for local clients. Can we use this servers to maintain external zones too or this is not advisible bacause of security issues?

Definitely DO NOT use AD controllers as external DNS servers.

If your DNS servers are JUST DNS servers and are in a DMZ, then it should be fine.
The last thing I would describe Windows DNS as is "simple to manage", The only interface is the MMC "snap-in", so you need Terminal Service (Remote Desktop) access or the admin toolkit installing on a remote machine.

We planned to use these servers not only as DNS but as WEB, Mail,, and FTP servers as well, in other words - all external services together. Of course in DMZ zone.

Not a problem then really, I would also look at installing Plesk for managing the server.

Thnx for suggestion! Which version of Plesk?

Ver 8 upwards, We're running with 8.3 on one server and 8.6 on another, and Ver9 has just been released.

What is the main reason of using Plesk? I found it very handy but the price is too high ($1,399.00) regarding that all the tasks can be achieved using standart Windows interface and MMC consoles. Is there anything that can be done with Plesk only?

Nope, simply that it is one interface to manage all the server tasks rather than 5 or 6 independent tasks. And everything can be done using a browser rather than needing direct or TS/RDP access.