[2] Any DNS query for a name ending with the label local must be sent to the mDNS IPv4 link-local multicast address 224.0.0.251, or its IPv6 equivalent ff02::fb.
By default, each computer's Avahi daemon will respond to mDNS hostname.local queries, and most shell commands and application program calls that attempt to resolve such names are routed to that daemon by the default hosts: line in the Name Service Switch configuration file.
At one time, Microsoft at least suggested the use of .local as a pseudo-TLD for small private networks with internal DNS servers.
At the present time, the .local domain name is not registered on the Internet.However, more recent articles have cautioned or advised against such use of the .local TLD.
Support article 300684[6] listed contoso.local as an example of a "best-practice Active Directory domain name", but then added: We recommend that you register DNS names for the top-most internal and external DNS namespaces with an Internet registrar.which would of course preclude using that or any other domain ending with .local.
For more information about how to configure client computers running Macintosh OS X version 10.3 or later, see "Connecting Macintosh Computers to a Windows Small Business Server 2003 Network" on the Microsoft Web site at [1].The Microsoft Learn article "Selecting the Forest Root Domain"[8] cautioned against using .local: ...we do not recommend using unregistered suffixes, such as .local.By default, a freshly installed Windows Server 2016 Essentials also adds .local as the default dns-prefix when a user doesn't select the advanced option, resulting in a domain with .local extension.