UNC Linux Users Group

[Joel Dunn <joel_dunn AT unc.edu>]

Guys & Gals, every now and then I get to take off my manager hat and put 
on a techie hat, even if it's in support of my own personal LAN at 
home.  My user community (i.e. family) can be demanding customers.

I've got a Toshiba server appliance  (SG10), which runs RH6.1, as my 
internet gateway.  Been using this for 18 months and it's very nifty and 
*much* better than a basic SOHO router :-).  Sometimes I use it's 
web-based config interface, and sometimes I do things the "old 
fashioned" way.  However, I don't get technical often enough and the 
management stuff crowds out the technical bits in my brain.

Here's the scoop.  Roadrunner changed their DNS servers this week (in 
the early morning of the 7th).  I've got my gateway set up for DHCP so 
when RR changes things (i.e. IP address) that works fine, although they 
don't do that often -- I've had the same IP address for over a year.  
However, when they changed DNS, my system didn't adjust things.  After 
some mental fumbling, I remembered /etc/resolv.conf, and changed the DNS 
servers (got the #'s from a neighbor with a Linksys which *did* pick up 
the change).  Things still didn't work until I finally remembered (last 
night) that I was running a caching named, and after I changed 
/etc/named.conf and restarted named, things were hunky-dory again.

So....my question is, Oh Linux Gurus, should my system have noticed the 
DNS change *without* an IP address change/lease expiration?  Why do the 
Linksys-type boxes pick up those changes?

An ancillary question...in the back of my mind, I remember that UNC now 
does not allow DNS references from the outside world, right, due to 
attacks last summer?  So I can't use the UNC DNS facilities...right?

--

+ Joel Dunn
+ joel_dunn AT unc.edu