[cobalt-users] Newbie DNS ? for own network

[Jim Dory <engineer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I've been hesitant to post here because I'm sure the answer is in the 
archives or the DNS webpages. I've been looking, please believe me. And 
also checking the newsgroups pertinent to DNS. But I'm just not getting 
it and thought someone who doesn't mind would offer some advice.. 
meanwhile I continue to research but my job duties don't allow enough 
time for it.

I'm setting up a Raq4r for email/webserving. I was pretty proud of 
myself because yesterday I got my email working. But I tried it today 
and now it doesn't, don't know what changed overnight. But I think the 
problem may be dns because in maillog I get 'name does not resolve' type 
messages.

The Raq is behind a firewall (which could be the problem but thought I 
better get a handle on DNS first). The email/web raq is on the DMZ of 
the firewall. I've registered a test domain name of www.nomecity.org 
with www.register.com before I switch over our 'real' domain from a 
local ISP. We are using a cable modem for our internet. I named the 
server host[www] domain [nomecity.org].

So register.com has DNS servers. On my GUI, under Server Management / 
Control Panel / Network I have tried adding in their DNS IP address. 
Actually it is dns17.register.com but I got the IP number by using 
Neotrace.  Apparently it must be an IP number entered here. That number 
was 216.21.234.79. At the command line of the raq, if I type
[admin admin]$ dig nomecity.org  any    (or any known domain on the 
internet)
I get
; <<>> DiG 8.3 <<>> nomecity.org any
;; res options: init recurs defnam dnsrch
;; res_nsend to server default -- 216.21.234.79: Connection timed out

I've also tried the cable company's supplied dns server address with 
same results.

(I've made sure that port 53 is not being blocked.)

Under Control Panel / Services / DNS server / parameters I have added 
records using the local network IP number of the raq. At register.com I 
have the records there pointing towards the cable co's supplied static 
IP number (the external network address of the firewall) and am using 
the firewall's nat to translate that to the local raq address. As I 
said, it all seemed to work yesterday.

Using www.dnsreport.com, I get a fail on the nameserver 
mail.nomecity.org which I had defined under the MX record dialog as per 
the Cobalt manual.

So can someone help me clean this up? I don't understand what exactly I 
should use for a dns server. Are there some basic commands I could use 
to test things? I'm not entirely sure some basic connectivity is set up 
right, as if I type lynx www.yahoo.com or something I can't get 
anything. The webserver seems to work ok.

--
Jim D