Topic: DNS

[sven]

Hello!

Im pretty new to Linux, so im glade to have found e-smith. But, I have to use a DNS server, so I tried to configure named.conf etc. etc. If im on the server the DNs works, but a friend of mine I asked to check my configuration says he cant dig my DNS. He suggest that the DNs port (53?) may be closed. Now how do I open that, I cant find any information about that.

Thanks for your time

Sven

[Charlie Brady]

sven wrote:

> Im pretty new to Linux, so im glade to have found e-smith. But,
> I have to use a DNS server, so I tried to configure named.conf
> etc. etc. If im on the server the DNs works, but a friend of
> mine I asked to check my configuration says he cant dig my DNS.
> He suggest that the DNs port (53?) may be closed. Now how do I
> open that, I cant find any information about that.

You don't say why "you have to use a DNS server", but in any case
the e-smith server comes configured with its own DNS server.  As originally configured, it runs as a caching nameserver fetching all its
domain information from primary sources as discovered via the root name server.

If you prefer, you can configure it to always forward queries to your ISPs name server(s) - the configuration screens for setting up these master DNS servers are in the web GUI under "Name and domain settings". Don't worry about what you have set up thus far - if you use that screen a new named.conf will be generated with the correct information.

Charlie

[sven]

Hello again!

I have to use my own DNS because:

My company is in Sweden, Europe. There is no such thing as flat rate, so we either use Dial-up or leased line. Our leased line (128kb) cost about $420 a month, so to cover that cost we have to host some customers, which brings us back to the need of a DNS-server. So im back to trying to make the DNS-server to run .

I´m just about getting the hang of the zonefieles and so on, but opening ports is way over my head.

My other choice is to use WinNT but I rather stick to Linux if I can make it work.

Regards Sven

[Charlie Brady]

sven wrote:

> My company is in Sweden, Europe. There is no such thing as flat
> rate, so we either use Dial-up or leased line. Our leased line
> (128kb) cost about $420 a month, so to cover that cost we have
> to host some customers, which brings us back to the need of a
> DNS-server. So im back to trying to make the DNS-server to run
> .
>
> I´m just about getting the hang of the zonefieles and so on,
> but opening ports is way over my head.
>
> My other choice is to use WinNT but I rather stick to Linux if
> I can make it work.

But of course. So we will help you.

Don't try to make your own named.conf. Follow the instructions on http://www.e-smith.org/ about customising your e-smith server. You will need to change the named.conf template, then generate the working named.conf from there. And you will also need to generate your zone files. If you are not a DNS guru then I recommend that you use a tool to generate your zone files. There are some good links at http://www.softpanorama.org/Net/dns_links.shtml which might help you.

What you need to change in the named.conf template is the bind address -"listen-on" - so that named will server to the Internet as well as the local network, and the list of zones. You can probably just delete
the "listen-on" line. That's most likely to be your problem at the moment.

There's some good information on configuring bind in /usr/doc/bind-8.2.1/html.

Charlie

[Charlie Brady]

sven wrote:

> I´m just about getting the hang of the zonefieles and so on,
> but opening ports is way over my head.

I forgot to mention in my other post. When you edit the named.conf template, be careful about  escaping the right {}s around the place. Just follow the patter of what's there already. Parentheses are the special character which delimits verbatim stuff from templates stuff.
Do "man Text::Template" to read more about the templated configuration file stuff.

Charlie