Don Russell wrote: > I added some information to my named configuration so sendmail could > resolve the reverse look up of the private LAN addresses.... or at least > get an error quickly instead of timing out > > In order for this to work, I manually changed /etc/resolv.conf , > deleting the exisiting nameserver statements, and adding nameserver > 127.0.0.1 > > Works great.... UNTIL the network is restarted and the resolv.conf file > is rewritten.... then the nameserver statements are back to the > addresses from the ISP obtained via DHCP. > > So, for an interesting experiment, I reconfigured the dhcp server in my > router (cisco) to not pass the ISP DNS addresses to my server, instead > use 127.0.0.1 > > Frankly, I wasn't expecting the server to be able to resolve any other > addresses.... but it does.... > > Why? Seems silly to be asking why something DOES work.... but I don't > understand how it can be resolving names like google.com, ibm.com etc > etc, when it was not told which dns servers to use, other than "ask > yourself".... > > What am I missing? ;-) In your named.conf do you have something like: zone "." { type hint; file "named.root"; }; If so, you have told your DNS server what it needs to do. -- There's a lot to be said for not saying a lot.