DNS setup

[Alan Curtis]

On Jul 3, 2005, at 11:57 AM, Alejandro Pulver wrote:

> On Sun, 3 Jul 2005 11:07:41 -0400
> Alan Curtis <alan.curtis at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>> I am running FreeBSD 5.3-STABLE behind a Linksys Wireless Access
>> Point and Firewall and a DSL modem. My ISP assigns me a dynamic IP
>> address which changes on a regular basis and the root domain and
>> Domain Name Servers associated with that domain also change. I have
>> seen at least 3 different root domains.
>>
>> I have a number of machines on my wireless network and I would like
>> them to be able to find one another. To do this I have assigned them
>> fixed IP addresses.
>>
>> My problem how to assign the Domain Name Servers for all the
>> machines. I point them all at the Linksys, which seems to work most
>> of the time, but occasionally network traffic gets really slow and I
>> suspect that its a DNS problem.
>>
>> Can I set up something on my FreeBSD server to help solve this
>> problem?
>>
>> Alan
>>
>>
>
> Hello,
>
> If you think the problem is on your ISP DNS servers, you have two
> alternatives:
>
> 1) Set up a local DNS server on all the machines of the network.
>
> 2) Set up a DNS server on one machine, that answers queries to all the
>    machines of the network.
>
> If you want more detailed information about them (like how to set them
> up), ask me.
>

I do need some clear instructions. I tried djbdns without success  
(see another post) and also the instructions under 'Domain Name  
System (DNS)' in the FreeBSD Handbook.

I added named_enable="YES" to /etc/rc.conf. Used the default  
configuration file without any zone (as suggested in the Handbook).  
There is no 'ndc' on my machine. I assume I must use 'rndc' instead.  
Ran 'rndc start' and was told

rndc: connect failed: connection refused

Saw nothing in /var/log/messages or /var/log/console.log

Alan