How to set up a DNS server(at Home)

[Tim]

Michael:
>> Just a minor additional suggestion: since this is for a home network,
>> you probably have DNS servers supplied by your ISP.  You should
>> configure your named server as a forwarder rather than doing your own
>> full resolution,

gmspro at yahoo.com:
> After cat /etc/resolve.conf, got this:nameserver 203.88.111.18
> nameserver 4.2.2.2
>
> Should I replace 
> 68.87.76.178;
> 68.87.78.130;with the values:203.88.111.18;4.2.2.2;

Your /etc/resolv.conf file should have the IP address for your DNS
server in there, an no external ones.

> And what does the forwarder do?

The "forwarder" configuration option in the named.conf file gives the
address for an external DNS server it'll query to answer anything that
it can't answer itself.

e.g. You ask your DNS server for the IP for google.com, and it doesn't
have an answer for it.  So, either it consults another DNS server listed
as a forwarder, and gives you its answer.  Or, if you don't have
forwarders configured, it goes to the root servers, finds out where to
make queries for ".com", then finds out where to make queries for
"google.com", then asks that server for the IP for "google.com".

I'd only configure forwarders if your ISP had good DNS servers.  Many
don't, and that's *why* some of us run our own DNS servers.  It's
certainly been the case for me, over about three different ISPs,
including two large national ISPs.

-- 
[tim at localhost ~]$ uname -r
2.6.27.12-78.2.8.fc9.i686

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