Anson Ng wrote: > Hi, (I'm sorry for the long email, but since I've to tell situation) > > I've registered a domain name "impko.com" at Network Solutions. But > since I haven't setup my DNS server and running properly, I parked it to > Network solutions for the time being. I want to host the domain for my > LAN, which consists of a Linux box (24.123.456.789) running www, mail, > news, ftp for public access and the internal LAN (192.168.1.x). Last > night, I configured a primary DNS server for "impko.com", but I think I > missed the reverse-IP lookup settings. > > Since I've only 1 external IP, i.e. 24.123.456.789, I named my Linux box > serv1.impko.com and then www, mail, news, ftp, ns1 are all CNAME to it. > And I got it working on my internal LAN, but I don't have a secondary. > > Here are my problems and questions: > 1. I tried to unpark the domain from Network Solutions and it required > 2 hostnames of the DNS server for the domain. So I provided them > the official hostname (cr123456-a.ym1.on.wave.home.com) for the > primary DNS, and for the secondary DNS, I typed in the primary DNS > server hostname from my ISP since don't have another IP for the > secondary. However it returned "Host name invalid" for both of my > entries. It said the hostname must host the domain, but I already > configured my own DNS.
Each NS record must refer to a registered HOST. In order to register a HOST record in a domain you must own that domain. There can only be one HOST record per IP address. You need to register serv1.impko.com as a HOST with network solutions. You'll need a second NS server as well. It has to be a different machine than the first and it must also naturally be registered as a HOST. > 2. Can I do it this way, my own DNS server for the primary entry and > the primary DNS from ISP for the secondary? You can if they are actually going to provide DNS for your domain. > 3. Since there is no DNS server on earth (except the one I host) > can resolve "ns1.impko.com", how can I use this DNS entry? This is what HOST records are for--so that the root servers which have the records for your domain can also give the IP addresses of the NS servers listed for it. > 4. How can I restrict the resolve of the hostname, > e.g. mydesktop.impko.com > of my internal LAN for only internal use, i.e. not for public? > But I still have to resolve the www, mail, etc. however they're > in different network, 24.123.456.789 and 192.168.1.x Many sites large and small use a "dual-dns" configuration. You run two instances of named. You can do this because named allows you to specify that it bind to a specific IP address (or addresses). So, you run one instance which binds to the internal Ip address and one that binds to the external. In order to get this to happen in debian you'll want to either modify your existing /etc/init.d/bind or better yet copy this one to a new one called /etc/init.d/bind-internal and get it registered to start up using 'update-rc.d bind-internal' and modify this script to pass your other config script. > 5. Can I setup both the primary and secondary DNS server on the same > box using the same IP? No. There are organizations (or at least there used to be) of people who would secondary for each other. I don't remember any URLs for these places. Use google. > 6. I use "linuxconf" to configure the DNS, when I add the domain to > the DNS, there's a field named "Main Server" (the 2nd field), what > should I typed in it if this is my primary DNS for the domain? I don't use linuxconf so I can't comment. > 7. After I successfully host my domain, is there anything I've to > inform my ISP to update? You first have to get them to agree to be a secondary DNS for you. If they agree you just need to give them your IP and enable (if you've disabled them) axfr transfers for their DNS server. > I know there are too many questions, sorry. Hope you could help me on > my questions, thank you. That's ok. The number and nature of your questions sound like you're in a little bit over your head. You should read man pages and RFCs. Don't expect people on mailing lists to tutor from being a newbie to being an expert in DNS administration. All this stuff isn't that hard but there are a bunch of things you need to understand to be able to set things up the way you need them to be. Just being able to run linuxconf won't be enough. In fact, you probably won't be able to use linuxconf at least not for the internal because linuxconf won't expect (I'm guessing) that you want to run two instances of named which you'll have to to have an internal version of your domain and an external. > Best Regards, Good luck. Just look for and read the documentation. It's out there. > Anson -- Jens B. Jorgensen [EMAIL PROTECTED]