Running BIND for home network name resolution

[Eric Shubert]

Eric Cope wrote:
> Hello all,
> I want to setup FQDNs for my home network.

Why? What do you intend to accomplish?
(Too often people try implementing a solution for a problem they don't 
really understand.)

> Does anyone have a good 
> tutorial on setting up BIND for a Mac/Windows/*nix environment? I was 
> hoping to keep DHCP from my router (it supports static DHCP - yes I know 
> that's contradictory).
> I have a dynDNS account, <mynet>.dyndns.org <http://dyndns.org>.
> 
> I want to be able to assign names like
> 
> macbook.<mynet>.dyndns.org <http://dyndns.org> for my macbook
> crappy.<mynet>.dyndns.org <http://dyndns.org> for my windows machine
> e-server.<mynet>.dyndns.org <http://dyndns.org> for my freebsd server
> ...

To be able to do this from the outside/wan, you simply need a client 
program that tells dyndns.org what your (router's if you have cable, or 
  DSL modem's if you use DSL) public IP address is, and when it changes. 
See http://www.dyndns.com/support/clients/. That program (there are 
several from which to choose, some of which are already built-in to 
firewalls such as IPCop) can run on your router or any one of your 
computers behind it. There are several ways you can do this, none of 
which directly involve bind. DynDNS handles all the bind stuff for you 
on the public side.

On the lan side of things, you can set up a private DNS server if you'd 
like, but for a handful of computers, it's often easier to just edit 
the hosts file on each machine.

> My googling has come up short, mostly because my search terms are lame. 
> Anyone have any ideas? tips? tutorials? good search terms? I don't want 
> to rely on hosts files.

Again, why (not)?

Personally, I use IPCop, which takes care of all of this (and much more) 
for me. IPCop is relatively simple, and very reliable.

-- 
-Eric 'shubes'