Paul Miller wrote: :I think I have bind setup correctly.. how can I test it?
Just add a primary zone, and see wether you can resolve it correctly. "dig" would be a good too for this. :Also, how do I add hosts to my domain? For example: :ftp.3dillusion.com :mail.3dillusion.com By adding them to the zone file. Maybe you should check out the "Cricket Book" from ORA ("DNS and BIND, 2nd Ed.") to learn a bit more on how this is done. Never mind, let's have an example for you. This'll assume that your host is ns.3dillusions.com. Step-by-step instructions follow: When registering your domain, you've given ns.3dillusions.com as Step-by-step instructions follow: 1. When registering your domain, you've given ns.3dillusions.com as your primary ns. This needs to be done so that the root servers of the .com domain delegate 3dillusions.com to your dns. 2. After running the bind installation, you check out /var/named and add a primary dns record to boot.zones, like this -snip- ; ; Name server zone boot file ; See named(8) for syntax and further information ; ; type domain source file primary 3dillusions.com db.3dillusions.com -snip- You can choose the filename to be what you like, but in my experience it is very helpful if you stick to a single naming scheme that allows you easily identify which zone database is in which file. Since bash has filename completion builtin, there's no reason to use short names :-) 3. Construct a suitable zone file. The masters of your zone may have special requirements on how the various variables are set up; my setup for your zone would probably look like this: -snip- $ORIGIN 3dillusions.com. @ IN SOA ns.3dillusions.com. hostmaster.3dillusions.com. ( 1997110701 ;serial 86400 ;refresh 7200 ;retry 604800 ;expire 86400 ) ;minim IN NS ns.3dillusions.com. IN NS secondary.dns.server. IN MX 10 ns.3dillusions.com. IN MX 100 backup.mail.server. ; hosts in this zone ns IN A xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx ; your ip address mail IN CNAME ns.3dillusions.com. ftp IN CNAME ns.3dillusions.com. -snip- In this example I've set up your DNS server to be the mail exchanger for your domain. Please note that you must not use mail.3dillusions.com in the MX record if mail.3dillusions.com is a CNAME. If you have a separate machine handling your mail, change the record above to an A record, and update the MX record. :..and finally, is this a safe way to update named (ran monthly): :--- :#!/bin/sh [...] Looks reasonably working to me - however, are you sure you want to get a new named.root file every month? In my experience, these files do not change very often, so it's perfectly sensible to do that manually. Besides that, I'd make sure to keep the old file in case NSI screws up - it's not very possible, but shit happens... HTH, -- Thomas Baetzler, [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] <A HREF="http://www.fh-karlsruhe.de/~bath0011/>Visit my Homepage!</A> "The cowards never came, and the weaklings died on the way" - R.A.H. -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .