I am having problems with my name servers.

I have created the name servers with the registrar, like you would normally do. What else do I need to do on my server.

Is there any files I need to change/make, what about the reverse lookups how do I solve that.

I have been trying to sort this out for weeks, but I keep failing, please could someone advise as to what I need in my dns hosts files etc...

Also, is it necessary to be hosting the domain on the server that you are using for name servers, example if I want ns1 and ns2.mydomain.com, do I need to have this mydomian.com hosted on the server?

I remember my first time doing this also, I was SO confused. I am going to attempt and try to give you what you need to complete this, but it might make no sence.


You have done what you need to do with your registar, next is to setup bind, if thats what you are using.

Me explaing how to setup bind will really make it just harder for you. But what you need to do after installing it is make what is called a zone file.

First in named.conf(usually in /etc)

zone "violat0r.net" {
type master;
file "/var/named/db.violat0r.net";
};

now where you see violat0r.net, you change that to your domain, and the file part, you can change the location of that if you want also.

next you edit the zone file, for me its /var/named/db.violat0r.net

This is what mine says:


$TTL 86400
@ IN SOA ns.75megs.com admin.75megs.com (
2000010201; serial
1000 ; refresh 1000
600 ; retry 600
36000 ; expire 36000
3600;
) ; minimum 3600

IN NS ns.75megs.com.
IN NS ns2.75megs.com.
IN MX 10 216.36.125.140.
IN A 216.36.125.140
www IN CNAME violat0r.net.
smtp IN CNAME violat0r.net.
pop IN CNAME violat0r.net.
mail IN CNAME violat0r.net.
ftp IN CNAME violat0r.net.
irc IN CNAME violat0r.net.
* IN A 216.36.125.140

Ok, now to explain this a little, where you see ns.75megs.com and ns2.75megs.com, those are my name servers. The MX is where mail is sent. The admin.75megs.com is the contact address, the CNAME spots are kinda like subdomains, well acually they are. For example www IN CNAME violat0r.net mean when you see www infront of violat0r.net send it to violat0r.net. The violat0r.net after CNAME has nothing to do with the domain you are working with.
IN A 216.36.125.140
that states the ip adress of it, and the last thing that really need to be explained is
* IN A 216.36.125.140

Thats just a wildcard entry. Now I hope this is what you are looking for, and im sure others will have some extra comments.

I just reread you question, and I dont think this was the information you were looking for but incase it is, there ya go.

Thanks for the info davidb,

It will come in handy, the problem I had was the host file for the dns name, was held on another server, and I had to add the following in the host file for the domain for the reverse lookup, and dns to work properly.

209.*.*.196 IN PTR ns1.mydomain.com.
209.*.*.197 IN PTR ns2.mydomain.com.

That sorted my mail problems out. Cheers.