Does NAT require DNS (named)?

[Gary Dunn]

Continuing the saga of building a wireless access point, what is the best way to provide DNS service to the dowstream network? Seems like all I need is a simple pass-through. For that named seems like overkill. Anyone have an /etc/named/named.conf that does that?

[mikel king]

Post by Gary Dunn
Continuing the saga of building a wireless access point, what is the
best way to provide DNS service to the dowstream network? Seems like
all I need is a simple pass-through. For that named seems like
overkill. Anyone have an /etc/named/named.conf that does that?
--
Gary Dunn, Honolulu
http://openslate.net/
http://e9erust.blogspot.com/
Sent from a Newton 2100 via Mail V

Depends on how your internal LAN is configured. Generally if there are
no internal servers then you can forgo deploying a DNS server. Simply
setup your firewall IPFW or pf or whatever you are using to allow
clients to go out to the net and look names up. You will likely need a
dhcp server though so that your wireless clients can auto-discover the
appropriate network settings, but you can elect to do that manually as
well if it's your desire.


Regards,
Mikel King
CEO, Olivent Technologies
Senior Editor, BSD News Network
Columnist, BSD Magazine
skype:mikel.king
http://olivent.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/mikelking
http://twitter.com/mikelking

[Chuck Swiger]

Post by Gary Dunn
Continuing the saga of building a wireless access point, what is the best way to provide DNS service to the dowstream network?

Run a nameserver?

Post by Gary Dunn
Seems like all I need is a simple pass-through. For that named seems like overkill. Anyone have an /etc/named/named.conf that does that?

named is fine, although I was happier with it's security history in the prior millennium than I am recently. But, if you don't want to run your own nameserver, point them toward nameservers run by your upstream network provider...

Regards,

[Darek M]

Post by Gary Dunn
Continuing the saga of building a wireless access point, what is the best way to provide DNS service to the dowstream network? Seems like all I need is a simple pass-through. For that named seems like overkill. Anyone have an /etc/named/named.conf that does that?

I normally run a copy of djbdns on the private IP, having private
clients use that for DNS. Alternately, the private clients could just
use your ISP's caching servers, which should work without any other
configuration (possibly an allowance on the firewall).

- Darek

[Gary Dunn]

Post by mikel king

Post by Gary Dunn
Continuing the saga of building a wireless access point, what is the
best way to provide DNS service to the dowstream network? Seems like
all I need is a simple pass-through. For that named seems like
overkill. Anyone have an /etc/named/named.conf that does that?

Depends on how your internal LAN is configured. Generally if there are
no internal servers then you can forgo deploying a DNS server. Simply
setup your firewall IPFW or pf or whatever you are using to allow
clients to go out to the net and look names up. You will likely need a
dhcp server though so that your wireless clients can auto-discover the
appropriate network settings, but you can elect to do that manually as
well if it's your
desire.

I failed to mention that the same FreeBSD box will provide file and printer services via Samba, all clients will be Windows Vista, and there will bo no other servers on the downstream network. I cannot rely on clients editing their LMHOSTS files ... I need plug and play. Do I need a DNS server on the downstream network for Windows clients to connect to Samba?

[mikel king]

On Thu, 8 Apr 2010 17:05:12 -0400 mikel king

Post by mikel king

Post by Gary Dunn
Continuing the saga of building a wireless access point, what is the
best way to provide DNS service to the dowstream network? Seems like
all I need is a simple pass-through. For that named seems like
overkill. Anyone have an /etc/named/named.conf that does that?

Depends on how your internal LAN is configured. Generally if there are
no internal servers then you can forgo deploying a DNS server. Simply
setup your firewall IPFW or pf or whatever you are using to allow
clients to go out to the net and look names up. You will likely need a
dhcp server though so that your wireless clients can auto-discover the
appropriate network settings, but you can elect to do that manually as
well if it's your
desire.

I failed to mention that the same FreeBSD box will provide file and
printer services via Samba, all clients will be Windows Vista, and
there will bo no other servers on the downstream network. I cannot
rely on clients editing their LMHOSTS files ... I need plug and
play. Do I need a DNS server on the downstream network for Windows
clients to connect to Samba?
--
Gary Dunn, Honolulu
http://openslate.net/
http://e9erust.blogspot.com/
Sent from a Newton 2100 via Mail V

Gary,

Thanks for the clarification. In this case if it were my network then
I would roll out both DNS and DHCP on this server. Honestly it will
make your life a hell of a lot easier in the long run, especially if
you intend on using WINS resolution for the Windows client via samba.
However only allow the DNS and DHCP services to run on the internal
LAN, bind them to an internal IP address.

You should be fine.

Cheers,
Mikel King

[Brodey Dover]

Unfortunately, still 17MB. I am going to play around with the sticks
of RAM that I have installed to see if there is a chipset/motherboard
issue.

Post by Gary Dunn

Post by mikel king

Post by Gary Dunn
Continuing the saga of building a wireless access point, what is the
best way to provide DNS service to the dowstream network? Seems like
all I need is a simple pass-through. For that named seems like
overkill. Anyone have an /etc/named/named.conf that does that?

Depends on how your internal LAN is configured. Generally if there are
no internal servers then you can forgo deploying a DNS server. Simply
setup your firewall IPFW or pf or whatever you are using to allow
clients to go out to the net and look names up. You will likely need a
dhcp server though so that your wireless clients can auto-discover the
appropriate network settings, but you can elect to do that manually as
well if it's your
desire.

I failed to mention that the same FreeBSD box will provide file and
printer services via Samba, all clients will be Windows Vista, and there
will bo no other servers on the downstream network. I cannot rely on clients
editing their LMHOSTS files ... I need plug and play. Do I need a DNS server
on the downstream network for Windows clients to connect to Samba?
--
Gary Dunn, Honolulu
http://openslate.net/
http://e9erust.blogspot.com/
Sent from a Newton 2100 via Mail V

Gary,
       Thanks for the clarification. In this case if it were my network then
I would roll out both DNS and DHCP on this server. Honestly it will make
your life a hell of a lot easier in the long run, especially if you intend
on using WINS resolution for the Windows client via samba. However only
allow the DNS and DHCP services to run on the internal LAN, bind them to an
internal IP address.
       You should be fine.
Cheers,
Mikel King
_______________________________________________
http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions

[Gary Dunn]

If you already have a name server on your network then no, the WAP
will not need to use DNS. You can tell the clients of the WAP that a
nameserver exists in the DHCPD.conf file.
I believe you can also set router 10.0.0.1 for example in the dhchpd.conf.

[snip]

Thanks for all the help with this! I got NAT working today by commenting
out my custom menu stuff and doing exactly what the handbook documents,
with adjustments for the outdated ipfw documentation. Now I need to
backtrack to get back to my menu design goals.

I got DNS working by placing my upstream DNS servers in dhcpd.conf.
Works fine as long as the router never moves. It is supposed to be
mobile, so I am working on a simple solution for that. Still might go
with a full DNS, as some suggest, but I need to learn a lot more about
managing those configuration files!

Performance was excellent. No visible delay pulling up oddball Google
image searches.