Re: DNS forward question

["Thomas O'Dowd" <tom@example.com>]

On Fri, Jun 01, 2001 at 04:52:02AM -0000, Jean-Christian Imbeault wrote:
> 
> >and if your DNS server has access
> >to the internet I'm not sure why forwarding is needed since it should
> >check root servers automatically for any host it doesn't know. Why
> >are you trying to use forwarders anyhow?
> 
> That's actually a good question. If I try a lookup without forwarders I get 
> this:
> 
> [root@example.com named]# nslookup www.yahoo.com
> ;; connection timed out; no servers could be reached
> 
> But my named.conf file has "." entry as follows. I guess I must have 
> something configured wrong somwhere?
> 
> zone "." IN {
>         type hint;
>         file "db.cache";
> };

This should be:

zone "." {
	type hint;
	file "db.cache";
};

Check also the contents of the file /var/named/db.cache. Does it look 
remotely familar to the output of the dig command with no args? If not
then perhaps you need a new one. Check also for errors popping out in
the logs.

> Also, doesn't using forwarders lighten the load on my own DNS server? This 
> in that they don't have to process a whole iterative lookup but pass a 
> recursive lookup request to the forwarders?

Nah, forwarders are useful in a couple of situations and yours is not
one of them. If your DNS server can query the external root servers then
there is just no need in such a small network. Queries will be much
faster without it as things get cached locally.

PS. I'm happy to help out, but you're getting paid for our knowledge. Try
hitting man pages and howtos before you ask. Alot of the questions are
simply answered there. Have a look at man resolver for your other
question on why sometimes non fqdns are working and other times not.

Tom.
-- 
Thomas O'Dowd. - Nooping - http://nooper.com
tom@example.com - Testing - http://nooper.co.jp/labs