DNS resolves on local server but does not resolve from anywhere else

[Jim Reid]

>>>>> "Simon" == Simon Atack <S.Atack-97 at student.lboro.ac.uk> writes:

    Simon> I recently registered 3 domain names flix.org.uk
    Simon> atackscomputers.co.uk and madcornishprojectionist.co.uk
    Simon> currently hosted on 194.74.221.78 and 194.74.221.79

    Simon> When I use nslookup to check the server by choosing either
    Simon> 194.74.221.78 or 194.74.221.79 and do a look up on anything
    Simon> in the domains that it is hosting things work fine.  BUT if
    Simon> i then change the server to any other eg
    Simon> herno.cyberware.co.uk and try to do a lookup on anything in
    Simon> my domains it sits there for a long while 10-40 seconds and
    Simon> comes up with "Server failed" or i get "No response from
    Simon> the server" seems to depend where i check it from

You screwed up the NS records in the zone files for these domains.
You've listed them as dotted decimals rather than hostnames. NS
records HAVE to point at hostnames which exist as A records. So
instead of 

	flix.org.uk. IN NS 194.74.221.78

in the zone file for flix.org.uk, you should have supplied:

	flix.org.uk. IN NS ns0.flix.org.uk.
	ns0.flix.org.uk. IN A 194.74.221.78

The same should be done for the other NS record and the other zone
files. Make sure that the NS records in the parent zones - .org.uk and
so on - agree with what you supply as the zone's NS records in your
zone file(s). The parent's NS records should be a subset of the ones
in your zone file.

BTW, congratulations for supplying all the relevant information: zone
files, domain names, IP addresses, named.conf. I wish other posters to
this list would do this when they have questions like that. However,
you could have cut out most of the comments from your named.conf file.
Anybody who had the ability to analyse your problem didn't need to be
told about the listen-on option or acls. They would also be familiar
with the sample named.conf thats shipped with BIND8. You should
probably remove those comments and unused options from named.conf.
They might cause confusion and bewilderment if you rarely look at this
config file.

PS I don't like all the A records for dns, mail, www, news, ftp, nntp,
and so on. [Are you planning to use all these names or are have you
just blindly copied some template from a Linux HOW-TO?] These names
would probably be better as CNAMEs for the hostname that has IP
address 194.74.221.79.