Setting up DNS without domain

Hello!

Since the DNS's of my ISP is constantly going down, I want to set up my own using BIND (except if you have any other recommendations). The problem is that all howtos I've found is based around having a domain, which I don't. Is this a prerequisite of running a DNS, or can you use a bogus domain (like youareamunch.kinlloyd which probably isn't already in use) or perhaps just your IP?

Another question: Do you recommend chrooting BIND?

Thanks in advance!
/Peter
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No, you can run BIND (named) without your own domain, just to resolve offsite FQNs that your local hosts need to resolve. Just run it and provide only the file that identifies root server (on my Debian system, /etc/bind/db.root). You do this by configuring named.conf to provide only that db file (as a "hint"), probably something like this:

        // prime the server with knowledge of the root servers
        zone "." {
                        type hint;
                        file "/etc/bind/db.root";
        };

If you have a significant number of hosts on your LAN, you might want to make this instance of BIND locally (on-LAN only) authoritative for a dummy domain that the hosts can use to find each other. (That's what I do here, for example.) In that case, the stuff you've seen about using BIND with real (registered) domains should guide you.

I offer no recommendation, but I do not do so myself.

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Thanks for the quick reply, Ray! I will try that ASAP.

/Peter
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Could you please explain yourself?
The reason why I've decided to set up my own DNS instead of using someone else's is to avoid any problems in the future. The problem, however, could be performance since I'll be running it on my workstation. Do you think this is a bad move?

/Peter

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----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter Edstrom" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, August 13, 2003 8:35 AM
Subject: Setting up DNS without domain

Yes. It's a good, basic security precaution for any Bind install.

See here :- http://en.tldp.org/HOWTO/Chroot-BIND-HOWTO.html for details

Regards

James Turnbull
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I forgot to include the list in my original reply... I've added it back in.

I'm using DirecWay (satellite) for internet connectivity. They provide a decent connection to the net, but everything else (DNS, email, etc.) is really bad. Had lots of trouble, sometimes for extended periods, with DNS lookup errors when I was using their DNS, so I just changed to different servers.

What I'm using for DNS now are the servers listed as primary at The University of Oklahoma, North Texas State University, and The University of Wyoming, as my primary, secondary, and tertiary name servers. Could just as easily have used Microsoft and CNN. Just pick somebody big and do a whois lookup on them, jot down the IP address of their primary name server, and use it in place of the IP address for your ISP's DNS.

Even if you set up your own server, it's going to have to communicate with somebody else's server(s) to resolve other than local names. Since I only have one local name to bother with, I didn't think it was worth the trouble.

(Somebody do a sanity check on what I'm saying here.)

-jdr-

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