Starting a new thread as suggested, since my problem is much smaller now.

I'm running a nameserver in one of my labs at work so that I can do DNS/NAT/DHCP for my gear. Everything's working just splendidly other than this one small glitch, and bugger if I can't seem to get it.

If I ping the full hostname, it resolves, for example 'hithere.cotlabnat.mitre.org'. However if I just ping 'hithere', it doesn't resolve at all.

I'm under the impression that the DNS server should be smart enough to handle the hostname-only request, but I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong in setting it up.

Here's my resolv.conf:
0.254 is my internal nameserver, the other two are the domain nameservers outside my lab network.

Sorted it out, disregard.

Post your solution so others might or could find it useful if they have the same issue.