I'm using Redhat-Fedora Linux 4. I have a static IP and am trying to setup a DNS server behind my router so that I can point to my web server that is hosting edwardcrosby.com. All of this was working at one time because I had DNS running on Windows 2000 but I wanted to get rid of my Windows server and move to Linux.
I know that my name server is working. You can ping outside my network, ns1.edwardcrosby.com, and get a reply but for some reason the host records in my forward zone is not working correctly to point to my web host record. My reverse zones seem to be working okay since I can ping all my host records internally.
Here is my named.conf file and forward zone file:

named.conf (look toward the end):
---
//
// named.conf for Red Hat caching-nameserver
//

options {
directory "/var/named";
dump-file "/var/named/data/cache_dump.db";
statistics-file "/var/named/data/named_stats.txt";
/*
* If there is a firewall between you and nameservers you want
* to talk to, you might need to uncomment the query-source
* directive below. Previous versions of BIND always asked
* questions using port 53, but BIND 8.1 uses an unprivileged
* port by default.
*/
// query-source address * port 53;
};

//
// a caching only nameserver config
//
controls {
inet 127.0.0.1 allow { localhost; } keys { rndckey; };
};

zone "." IN {
type hint;
file "named.ca";
};

zone "localdomain" IN {
type master;
file "localdomain.zone";
allow-update { none; };
};

zone "localhost" IN {
type master;
file "localhost.zone";
allow-update { none; };
};

zone "0.0.127.in-addr.arpa" IN {
type master;
file "named.local";
allow-update { none; };
};

zone "0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0. 0.0.0.0.0.0.ip6.arpa" IN {
type master;
file "named.ip6.local";
allow-update { none; };
};

zone "255.in-addr.arpa" IN {
type master;
file "named.broadcast";
allow-update { none; };
};

zone "0.in-addr.arpa" IN {
type master;
file "named.zero";
allow-update { none; };
};

zone "edwardcrosby.com" IN {
type master;
file "edwardcrosby.com.dns";
allow-update { none; };
};

zone "'internal.IP'.in-addr.arpa" IN {
type master;
file "'internal.IP'.in-addr.arpa.dns";
allow-update { none; };
};

include "/etc/rndc.key";

--------------------------


Forward zone file - edwardcrosby.com.dns:
---
$ORIGIN edwardcrosby.com.
$TTL 86400

@ IN SOA ns1.edwardcrosby.com. ecrosby.edwardcrosby.com. (
18 ; serial number
900 ; refresh
600 ; retry
86400 ; expire
3600 ) ; minimum TTL

IN NS ns1.edwardcrosby.com.

IN MX 10 mail.edwardcrosby.com.

IN A 192.168.x.x


mail IN A 192.168.x.x
ns1 IN A 192.168.x.x
www IN A 192.168.x.x



---
As you see I have a mail record also because I plan to eventually setup a Postfix server for my mail but I wanted to get the DNS working first.
Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong?
Thanks in advance.

I screwed up, didn't I? Those host records in the forward zone file should be pointing to my external IP not my internal DNS server's IP, right?
Even so, it doesn't seem to be working that way either.

Are the 3 lines below indented? i.e. as in continuation from SOA record which is referring to edwardcrosby.com

IN NS ns1.edwardcrosby.com.
IN MX 10 mail.edwardcrosby.com.
IN A 192.168.x.x

Also, check /var/log/messages for any named startup errors. I'd be willing to bet you are currently getting no NS records found due to no indentation -or- prefacing the above lines with an @ sign

I was wondering if you were trying to setup an internal only server. If this server is going to be queried by internet, then yes, you would need public IP address.

Also look into using bind "views". Then you can setup an internal view and external view which would return public/private ip address based on source address of query. i.e.

A query from 192.168.x.x (internal view) for edwardcrosby.com = 192.168.x.x

A query from 206.206.206.206 (external view) for edwardcrosby.com = x.x.x.x; where x.x.x.x is the public side of your firewall.

I found my issue. It was a router config problem all along. I need to remember to look over my routes a little closer from now on.