i have built an internal DNS server, however when I am on the windows clients and do nslookup I get :
**** can't find serfer name for address 192.158.1.35: Non-exsistenst domain.
Why won't my windows client pick up the DNS server. All I need it to do is internal resolution.l

There could be many reasons for this. Here are some things to check:

1) Is the Windows machine configured to use your DNS server ?

2) Can you ping the DNS server machine from the Windows machine ?

If the above things work there may be a problem with the DNS server's configuration.

3) Does nslookup (or dig) on the DNS server work ?

If so you may either have the DNS server process bound only to the loopback interface or a firewall on the server that is causing problems.

On my machine the command :

# netstat -utap |grep domain gives the following output :

tcp 0 0 localhost:domain *:* LISTEN 600/named
udp 0 0 localhost:domain *:* 600/named

In your case you would want to see * instead of localhost in the 4th column, otherwise the DNS server will only be accessible from the machine its running on (which is what I want but not you).

Tim

Yes my windows is correct.

When I did the netstat command I got

tcp 0 0 mambo.digitaltri:domain *:* LISTEN
2383/named
tcp 0 0 192.168.1.34:domain *:* LISTEN
2383/named
tcp 0 0 WSDT01:domain *:* LISTEN
2383/named
udp 0 0 mambo.digitaltri:domain *:*
2383/named
udp 0 0 192.168.1.34:domain *:*
2383/named
udp 0 0 WSDT01:domain *:*
2383/named


When I did dig mambo.digitaltribes.net (a test server) I got:

[root@WSDT01 root]# dig mambo.digitaltribes.net

; <<>> DiG 9.2.1 <<>> mambo.digitaltribes.net
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NXDOMAIN, id: 24671
;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;mambo.digitaltribes.net. IN A

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
digitaltribes.net. 38400 IN SOA WSDT01. bentlehy78.myway.com. 1067145001 10800 3600 604800 38400

;; Query time: 1 msec
;; SERVER: 192.168.1.35#53(192.168.1.35)
;; WHEN: Sun Oct 26 02:16:45 2003
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 103
.

I am still lost.

Well its clear that your not getting a reply from your DNS server for the name mambo.digitaltribes.net.

I'm not quite sure of what you're trying to do though. My guess is that your DNS server has 2 network interfaces one on a private intranet and the other on the internet. I suppose you want to set up a private domain for the machines on the intranet and have your DNS server resolve queries for that domain. Queries for other domains should be resolved starting from the root servers. Is this correct ?

In order to do this you'll need to do the following :

1) Choose a domain name for your private domain.

2) Configure bind as master server for that domain.

3) Set up the DNS data base for your domain.

Have you done this ?

Tim