DSN Setup

rshadow · 10-01-2002, 04:06 AM

Question for anybody that can point me in the right directon.

Situation: I have a ADSL Modem that uses PPPoE to connect. I have RedHat 7.3 and Apache 2.0.43, and ProFTPD (If I can get it configured correctly) installed and working. I have some sort of Router (dont remember brand name) that acts as a DHCP Server for my two machines (The Linux box and WinXP). It also updates a dyndns.org domain with my current IP address whenever ADSL feels froggy and drops connection. Currently I have it setup so you can telnet, http:// , ftp:// (soon, maybe) to my RedHat machine via the xxx.dyndns.org domain. The WinXP machine can connect to the net as well.

Problem: What I want to do is setup a DNS server so I can host a domain. I currently have a Virtual Server with a company running BSDI and I love it to death, its nice. However sometimes I can't connect to them for various reasons beyond my control, as well I I like to test all my Perl and whatnot scripts before acctualy making them avalible to the public. What I would like to do is register a domain name mystinkintestserv.com for example and have it point to my linux box.

My Theory: If I can setup a DNS server to handle the domain (which I have no idea how to do), what I belive I can do is register the domain, and use xxx.dyndns.org as my nameserver and have my machine handle it. I would also like to be able to host more than one domain, for example if I get froggy and want to have xxx.mystinkintestserv.com or someotherdomain.com point to my local server as well and use VirtualServer technolagy to host them.

The Big Question: Can this be done, and if so can somebody point me in the right direction. I have read several howto's on BIND and DNS, but none of those really tell me if I can do this or not. They all talk about acting as a caching service which I don't belive is what I want.

Thank you for your time.

TruckStuff · 10-01-2002, 08:34 AM

Either BIND or djbdns can do what you are asking. BIND is more "universally accepted", meaning that most of the planets runs BIND. djbdns is just as powerful, more secure, easier to configure, but newer so its not as widely distributed. Installing djbdns was a breeze, but I haven't play around at all with tinydns (the name server portion of djbdns). Its more or less up to you as to which one you want to run. Check out:

http://www.isc.org/products/BIND/ and
http://www.djbdns.org

My question is why would you run the nameserver off of your dyndns address and the servers off of your other domains if they are all pointing to the same IP address (your ADSL connection)?

jrmann1999 · 10-01-2002, 10:27 AM

You are going to run into an enourmous headache if you don't get a static IP. Dns records take anywhere from 24-48 hrs to propogate(at least mine do) across the internet. If your connection releases every..48 hours, you will never get queries to your box.

rshadow · 10-01-2002, 06:44 PM

jrman1999 : that is why I want to setup the dyndns address as the nameserver, because I don't have a static IP address (anybody want to give me the money to move to japan?).

TruckStuff: because I don't have a static IP address. Otherwise everytime my IP address changed, I would then have to update my domain to point to the new IP address.