Hi again Fred, > As for if you are missing something else that would allow you to > achieve your goal, I'll let others answer.
This was bugging me this morning so I ran a quick second test. It turns out that allow-query { }; limited to just those IP(s) that should be able to query the server will return refused to all others. I set on my test server: allow-query { none; }; And that produced REFUSED on a client: % dig . TXT @192.168.40.82 +norec ; <<>> DiG 9.10.6 <<>> . TXT @192.168.40.82 +norec ;; global options: +cmd ;; Got answer: ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: REFUSED, id: 53007 ;; flags: qr; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1 ;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION: ; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 1232 ; OPT=15: 00 12 ("..") ;; QUESTION SECTION: ;. IN TXT ;; Query time: 11 msec ;; SERVER: 192.168.40.82#53(192.168.40.82) ;; WHEN: Sun Sep 07 06:20:31 EDT 2025 ;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 34 Thank you, Darren Ankney -- Visit https://lists.isc.org/mailman/listinfo/bind-users to unsubscribe from this list.