DNS, BIND9 ... diving in ...

[Chuck Swiger]

Joshua Tinnin wrote:
[ ... ]
> Received: from unknown (HELO smogmonster.com)
> 	(jtinnin at pacbell.net@64.173.27.15 with plain)
> 	by smtp811.mail.sc5.yahoo.com with SMTP; 30 Apr 2005 11:26:08 -0000
> 
> Well, I don't own smogmonster.com (when I first picked it, nobody did, 
> but now someone does), but FreeBSD wouldn't let me assign a name that 
> wouldn't ever resolve, like simply "smogmonster". Is this a problem, or 
> should I not worry about it? Or am I missing something vital here?

It's considered impolite to impersonate a domain which does not belong to you. 
  For the purposes of email, it would be better to masquerade as a host in the 
domain of your ISP or mail service (ie, masquarade as pacbell.net).

> Also, is there any sort of guide on how to set up DNS in my situation? 

Yes, use an invalid top-level domain like .local, or maybe .lan.

> I've read the handbook, and it seems most of it is covered, but 
> additional sources are always welcome. Later, I'll be getting static 
> IPs and will probably have my ISP handle rDNS, but I'll need to assign 
> authoritative names at that point, though not until then.

O'Reilley publishes an excellent book on DNS, although the BOG (BIND 
Operations Guide) is also worth a read.

-- 
-Chuck