internal v external DNS

[datadan_1]

OK I get to the internet (hurray). My desktops point to linux box for DNS. No trouble resolving stuff like www.linuxnewbie.org. (http://www.linuxnewbie.org.)

However how to assign internal stuff. Suppose I want to ping blahblah and have the linux box tell the desktop "blahblah = 10.x.y.z". Currently I have to modify c:/windows/host files on each desktop. I would love for my linux monster to take care of this. I tried putting the assignment in /etc/hosts stopping/starting named, but this just allows the linux box to ping blahblah.

Any help appreciated.

[bdg1983]

Try changing the order in /etc/hosts.conf to

order hosts,bind
multi on

[datadan_1]

I did this change and restarted (stop/start) named and I still cannot ping names in my host file. Rather I can ping the names from the linux box, but I cannot ping the names if my desktops point to the linux box as a DNS.

red hat 7.1

Extra help on this issue would be greatly appreciated. I am obviously doing something wrong:

edit /etc/hosts (in here define 10.a.b.c test)

this allows the linux machine to ping test.

edit /etc/resolve.conf (in here search and nameservers are defined)

edit /etc/host.conf to order hosts, bind and multi on (just like the how to says).

I still can't ping names specified on my linux's hosts file. I can ping the IP only. (Name is preferable).

Thanks