So your client can resolve a hostname if you specify the dns server. Are you sure that the dns settings are not changed somehow?
What happens if you don't give the dns IP?
Maybe you need to flush your dns cache before running the nslookup command

i get the same result by running nslookup www.vls.local so it is resolving the hostname but still i can't do http or ftp on the win7 client. i always flush the dns on the win7 everytime i run nslookup..

This doesn't make sense. If your client can resolve a hostname using your dns, then http, ftp or whatever should also resolve it.
Perhaps you have to configure a http vhost with a name of www.vls.local in your webserver running on 10.0.0.88.

i know it does not really make sense.. even using ftp doesn't work..

by the way..on the dns server i get no response using nslookup www.vls.local

is this ok?

Of course it's not ok. Run
and post the complete output

[root@machine ~]# dig www.vls.local

; <<>> DiG 9.8.2rc1-RedHat-9.8.2-0.10.rc1.el6_3.2 <<>> www.vls.local
;; global options: +cmd
;; connection timed out; no servers could be reached
[root@machine ~]#

What's in /etc/resolv.conf? You may comment out the 2 "listen-on ...", so bind listens on all available interfaces (the default)

On the DNS server itself (since it is *NIX) you need to tell it what DNS servers to use in the /etc/resolv.conf and also tell it to use DNS in /etc/nsswitch.conf.

On the DNS server first type "lsof -i :53" and verify you see it LISTEN on that port on IP 127.0.0.1 (localhost).

Assuming that is the case you're /etc/resolv.conf should have (at least):
Also assuming your domain is vls.local you could add a search path to /etc/resolv.conf:
That way when you do a lookup you can specify the short name as opposed to the FQDN (e.g. "host www" or "nslookup www" would append vls.local so return the answer for www.vls.local). Note that this only has effect on the server itself and would NOT help your Windows 7 box.

/etc/nsswitch.conf may have a line like:
That tells it to first check a database then your local /etc/hosts, then nisplus, then nis and finally dns. If all you actually have is /etc/hosts and BIND you could simplify the line to do the following:
No point in slowing things down to lookup things that aren't there.

However, going back to your original problem. It appears you are saying nslookup on the Windows 7 machine without specifying the server IS finding the correct IP for your web server. If this is the case then DNS is NOT your problem. It is the web server that is the problem. This would be a SEPARATE issue from DNS.

Rather than going into troubleshooting web here you should close this thread and open a new one because the configuration for web (e.g. apache/httpd) can be quite complicated in itself.

Also you now mention ftp. Having a web server on a host does not automatically grant ftp access to it so this also would be a SEPARATE issue. Here again you should think of opening a separate thread for just the ftp stuff.

That is to say on Linux you can have many different services/servers. BIND (DNS), HTTPD (Apache/Web) and FTPD are 3 different services and you should try to segregate your problems.

I'd recommend:
1) First verify DNS is working the way it should. It appears from the Windows 7 results you indicate that it is in fact so far as Windows 7 is concerned.
2) Once that is DONE. Open a new thread for the Web stuff. You can post a link back to this thread in the new one but set your new title for that.
3) Once this is DONE. open a new thread for the FTP stuff.

Not segregating the problem leads to confusion both on the part of those who are trying to help and on your part. It is also likely to lead folks to quit responding.

resolv.conf
====
nameserver 127.0.0.1
search vls.local
====

nsswitch.conf
====
hosts: dns files
====

i just used the ftp example since i cannot do ftp as well bu if i use 10.0.0.88 i can access ftp and the web...

dig www.vls.local is now showing:



[root@machine ~]# dig www.vls.local

; <<>> DiG 9.8.2rc1-RedHat-9.8.2-0.10.rc1.el6_3.2 <<>> www.vls.local
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 11185
;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 2, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 1

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;www.vls.local. IN A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
www.vls.local. 86400 IN CNAME machine.vls.local.
machine.vls.local. 86400 IN A 10.0.0.88

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
vls.local. 86400 IN NS ns1.vls.local.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
ns1.vls.local. 86400 IN A 10.0.0.88

;; Query time: 0 msec
;; SERVER: 127.0.0.1#53(127.0.0.1)
;; WHEN: Mon Sep 17 13:16:40 2012
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 103


but still i cannot access www.vls.local in the win7 desktop...

So from the Windows 7 box in browser if you put "http://10.0.0.88" it goes to the correct web page?

From the Windows 7 box if you type "ftp 10.0.0.88" it lets you enter the login/password?

Notice in your dig output that www.vls.local is a CNAME to machine.vls.local and it is the A record for the latter that has the IP assignment. Given this I'm wondering what happens if you type "http://machine.vls.local" in browser or "ftp machine.vls.local" at command prompt.

For web setup you MUST allow each URL you want in the web configuration. That is to say even if you can get to http://10.0.0.88 it does NOT automatically mean you can get to http://www.vls.local or http://machine.vls.local even though they resolve to that IP. This is because the web server configuration itself determines what are acceptable URLs and what to do with them. This is why a single web server with a single IP address can do different things with different URLs.

For the ftp I wouldn't expect that to be an issue.

Again I urge you to open a new ticket specifically regarding your web setup. The people that responded to your DNS setup may or may not be able to assist you on the web setup.

yes you are right. if i use http://10.0.0.88 the page comes out and if i use my ftp program (filezilla) and enter 10.0.0.88 i can access the ftp folder in the server. "http://machine.vls.local" in browser or "ftp machine.vls.local" at command prompt doesn't work at all..

in this case, the dns server is still not working right?

You need to go back and reread my last two posts.

Either you are NOT reading what I'm writing or you're deliberately being dense.

Again all DNS does is provide NAME to IP resolution. It has nothing to do with how Web pages or FTP work - it is ONLY used to get to the correct IP when you input names.

To reiterate:
If nslookup on the Windows 7 host is correctly equating the www with the IP you expect then DNS is NOT the problem!

i've read all your post and it seems strange to me that even FTP doesn't work. i don't see any settings in any ftp server that you need to add a url to allow it to work.

i guess i found the problem.. i removed the secondary dns which is 10.0.0.1 in the win7 machine and left only the 10.0.0.88. i was able to ping now www.vls.local and access the http://www.vls.local as well as the ftp.

after doing the above, i needed to add a DNS2 entry in the eth0 interface of the dns server and put the 10.0.0.1 to have internet access.

thanks for all your help..

I'm glad you got it working but what you did to fix it means you must not have been providing accurate information about your results from nslookup without specifying server. If you'd gotten the answer you said it should have meant nothing was looking at the other DNS server.

Im not sure if i got it right. But i've provided all the results on every command that was requested me to run in this thread. May i know what was the info that i did not provide?