DNS & Name Servers.

[Dale Farnsworth]

Keith wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I have an old lap top on which I have installed CentOS 5.6 and Qmail
> Toaster.  I can send and receive email just fine.  Qmail Toaster is
> working just fine.
> 
> Now I want to configure Bind.  Currently I am using my registrar's DNS. 
> I would like to run my own for the experience of it.
> 
> I only have one IP address on my Internet Account.  It is my
> understanding I need 2 name servers.  If that is true how do I create a
> second name server?  As I recall I need a different IP for each name
> server.
> 
> Is my info wrong or is there a work around?

If you just want to run a DNS resolver to be used by your own machines,
you only need one server that is running the resolver.

You only need two servers when you want to run authoritative name
servers to provide IP addresses to the internet at large for hosts
in your registered domains.

If you really want to learn how DNS works, I'd suggest that you install
and configure something like djbdns.  It has separate programs for the
different functions of DNS.  Bind puts all of the functions into
a single program, which IMHO, makes it more difficult to understand
at first.  After your get the concepts down with djbdns, you can
switch to bind if you want experience with it.

-Dale