Resolving domain.com versus machine.domain.com

[Cricket Liu]

> I'm helping with a freenet in the Seattle area (scn.org) that provides
> access to a menu system via telnet (or dialup).  Currently, users can
telnet
> to "scn.org".  We do have machines named, so this one is actually
> "scn.scn.org", and there are others in the network.
>
> It is our understanding that we ought to have telnets coming into, say,
> "telnet.scn.org" (a CNAME for scn.scn.org), and that allowing "scn.org" to
> resolve to specific machine limits our DNS options in other ways.

For example, at some point, you may want scn.org to resolve to the
address of the organization's web server, and you may not want to run
the web server on the same box that runs the telnet daemon.

> We are presently on BIND4, but are planning an upgrade to BIND8 in the
very
> near future.  Out name services are handled by the Seattle Public Library,
> but we want our DNS to feed up to theirs by reverse arp, if I understand
it
> correctly.

DNS and reverse ARP don't really have much to do with each other.

> At present, we are running a caching-only config.  We really
> just want the freedom to control our own DNS entries on our own, in case
we
> want to break out services to separate machines, or move a service from
one
> to another.

That makes sense.  Sounds like you should run the primary master name
server for scn.org and have the Seattle Public Library run slaves for you.

> Can we allow "scn.org" to resolve to "scn.scn.org" (or any other machine
we
> choose) without compromising our configuration or options?

See above.

cricket

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