[KLUG Members] LAN's and DNS

[Bruce Smith]

> Okay, so address 192.168.1.0/24, e.g., is "invisible" to the outside
> world. Cool. But what about internal address NAMES? Since our ISP is the
> NS for caresswm.org (the www. name and the MX records) and since I DON'T
> want to serve as our own authoritative NS to the Real World(tm), what do
> I do? 

What I do, is run my own DNS server(s) on my internal LAN, and point all
internal clients to those DNS server(s).  Those internal DNS server(s)
are authoritative for my domain(s), all other DNS queries are forwarded
outside to get real IP addresses.

i.e. If an internal client requests the IP address for www.caresswm.org,
it receives the 192.168.0.x address from your own DNS server.  If they
request www.yahoo.com, your DNS server forwards the request to the
internet returning yahoo's real address.  

Clients from the real internet use real internet DNS servers and receive
the 216.109.195.249 address for www.caresswm.org.

That way it's all transparent to the users, and no need for two names
for each server.

--------------------------------------------
Bruce Smith                bruce@armintl.com
System Administrator / Network Administrator
Armstrong International, Inc.
Three Rivers, Michigan  49093  USA
http://www.armstrong-intl.com/
--------------------------------------------