Setting up DNS

[holysocks!]

I've set up apache correctly so that service is running just fine. You can view my website by typing in the ip address of my server.

Now I'm trying to set up DNS. I've got network solutions pointing to my server for my domain name (coloradobassist.com), but when you try and access the page via domain name it chokes.

Any ideas? Is there a way to test if DNS is set up correctly?

Any help is appreciated.

[hlrguy]

nslookup

in a console to test your DNS servers.

hlrguy

[holysocks!]

I tried that and got:

** server cannot find coloradobassist.com: SERVFAIL

I don't know what to do. I've set up the zone file, named.conf, and resolv.conf files the way I thought I was supposed to, but something's still not right.

[hlrguy]

Firewall problem? Disable your firewall, try it, then re-enable. I forget which port DNS queries come back on, but can find out if the above works.

hlrguy

[HighOrbit]

Normal DNS operations use UDP protocol on port 53. Zone transfers use TCP.

[rosst]

What is your network topology? Is the web server on the same net as the dns server? Is your test box on the same net? Are you using the dns name of the web server to access it or are you using a cname to make an alias work? Are you using a fully qualified domain name or a shorter name with all systems in the same domain?

Given the current information, we have too many variables. Try to eliminate as many as you can for your testing. Making sure a firewall isn't causing problems is a good idea. Can nslookup resolve the name of the dns server? If not, there is a basic dns configuration problem, either in the client or dns server. If it can, there is probably a problem with the entry for the web server.

This may be completely off base, but what is the name of your dns server and your web server? I recently ran into a teacher building his first internet box. He got a valid domain and gave his box the domain name instead of a name in his domain. This caused all sorts of configuration problems.

If you want, I can send you the dns files for my "isp server". It serves web, mail, and dns. This system isn't on the internet but it thinks it is. The configuration isn't perfect but it works.