Help! Bind on RH Linux 9

[DTS]

Hi,

    I'm using the default installation of BIND that comes with RedHat
Linux 9.x. I need to use it as the authoritative DNS for my domain. Is
the default installation of BIND on this version of RH caching-only,
or can it be used for just about any DNS purpose (does modifying
named.conf effect this)?  When I try nslookup locally on the DNS
server, it fails to find the service at all (;; connection timed out;
no servers could be reached). Yet, when I can verify with chkconfig
--list that named is indeed running. How can I pick out the named
service from a netstat listing?

    Other questions...What should I set my server hostname to? How can
I ensure that /etc/resolv.conf cannot be overwritten by the system
once I make changes to it?

    I'm in the middle of consulting the official RH docs, specifically
the Reference Guide for help. I've already consulted three other books
on this matter (RHCE Study Guide, O'Reilly's Linux Network
Administration, and O'Reilly's DNS and Bind!). I'm rather concerned
that something more subtle, such as a network interface
misconfiguration may be going awry.

Thanks for any and all help!
DTS