Caching-only nameserver for internal network

[Matt Larson]

At 09:30 AM 8/19/99 +0000, Michiel Kreutzer wrote:
>and have made the neccesary changes to both /etc/named.conf (uncomment the
>"any port" line, forward first; forwarders {my_ISP_nameservers;})

The name server on the firewall doesn't need to forward to your ISP's name 
server.  If it's got a root hint zone configured with the current list of 
root name servers (ftp://ftp.rs.internic.net/domain/named.cache), your 
firewall name server can resolve anything.

>I have not set up a
>domainname for my intranet, and I wonder if I need to.

Even if you don't need one now, you'll probably need one later.  Better to 
get and use a legitimately registered domain name than a made-up one.

>The problem I face now is that if I use firewall's ip-number as the only
>nameserver for the other boxes, I cannot resolve any names. At least
>nslookup does not work, both in ip#-to-hostname and hostname-to-ip#
>mode.

The name server on the firewall is not using /etc/hosts on the 
firewall.  You can use a tool like h2n to convert /etc/hosts to files 
readable by the name server.

>I have read
>the DNS-HOWTO, but that did not help me succeed.

I'd recommend O'Reilly's "DND and BIND" book, which specifically covers 
migrating from a hosts file using h2n.

Matt

--
Matt Larson <matt at acmebw.com>
Acme Byte & Wire / http://www.acmebw.com