Most of the limitations listed below are related to the use of the NetBIOS protocol and/or WINS.

Limits in Active Directory:
# , + " \ < > are special characters in LDAP as defined in RFC2253.
User account: 20 characters, or 20 bytes depending upon the character set; individual characters may require more than one byte. A user account cannot consist solely of periods (.), spaces, or the at (@) sign. Any leading periods or spaces are cropped.
Computer account: 15 characters, or 15 bytes depending upon the character set; individual characters may require more than one byte. A computer account cannot consist solely of numbers, periods (.), or spaces. Any leading periods or spaces are cropped.
Group account: 63 characters, or 63 bytes depending upon the character set; individual characters may require more than one byte. A group account cannot consist solely of numbers, periods (.), or spaces. Any leading periods or spaces are cropped.
  • http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/en/server/help/default.asp?url=/windows2000/en/server/help/sag_ADintro_12.htm
No more than 10.000 entities (users or groups) per domain
Windows for Workgroups has a NetbIOS limit of 15 characters for computernames and 12 characters for share names
Computernames in general are limited to 15 characters if NetBIOS is used to resolve the name
Groups names are limited to 20 characters in Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 Mixed-Mode AD domains
User names are limited to 20 characters in Windows NT 4.0 domains and under DOS/Windows 3.1
For printers that are shared, the entire qualified name (including the server name, \\PRINTER2\PSCRIPT, for example) must be less than 32 characters Shared printers that need to be accessible from DOS are limited to an 8-character share name length Windows for Workgroups and Windows 95/98 are limited to 12 characters (8.3) for share names
Pathnames are limited to 256 characters under Windows 95 and NT 4.0
Share comments are limited to 48 characters under Windows 9x and 256 characters under Windows NT 4.0
Underscores are not allowed in valid DNS names
Periods are not allowed in NetBIOS names
Filenames are limited to 250 characters under Windows 95
Filenames are limted to 127 character in a Windows 95 command prompt, however, this can be expanded to about 240 characters
Server comments are limited to 48 characters under Windows NT/2000
{moderator corrected typo}

[ 08. August 2003, 13:45: Message edited by: sealeopard ]
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