Simple DNS server (was Re: [nzlug] mdadm and lvm on a live distro?)

[Nevyn]

I've always found webmin to be just plain silly. Instead of making
things easier, it seems to be an alternative to editing config files.

I.e. I don't really want to know the intricacies of dns - all I want
to do is be able to say to it is "if I ask for this name, return this
ip address". Eg. I don't want to know what MX records are. Even worse,
I don't want to know about reverse-lookup files - this seems like
twice the work to me with the results offering one thing. I.e I don't
see a difference between returning a name for an ip address and
returning an ip address from a name.

If the guys who wrote the modules for webadmin could see that they
have the potential to create a killer configuration tool for beginners
(lets face it, on certain subjects we're all beginners - we learn 2000
odd things for Linux and then find we're absolutely clueless about
something else) if only the guys who wrote the modules would:
a) realise that this sort of tool would appeal as much to beginners as
to system admins.
b) realise that common knowledege isn't so common i.e. I know that
everything in Linux can be viewed as a file - my mum who checks email
on the computer every so often doesn't know nor does she need to know
this

On 3/9/07, Warren <w.boyd at clear.net.nz> wrote:
> I've seen and utilised simple tools like this before ... However, I would
> question whether webmin would do the trick for you?
>
> I have a separate box here acting as my main DNS server - I simply setup
> bind, webmin and the webmin module for bind and have been accessing it via a
> browser no problems...
>
> And, after managing DNS zone files by hand, it certainly works extremely
> simply.  When I want to manage my zone, I simply point my web browser at:
> ns.deity.net.nz ...
>
> As you grow or your requirements for DNS change, webmin does have extra bits
> in there.
>
> HTH,
> Warren.
>
>
> On 2007/03/9 15:04, "Nevyn" <nevynh at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I was using it at one stage but it only seemed to work half the time.
> > Never looked into why it seemed so unreliable. It's always vexed me
> > why no one's written a simple gui to add hosts to a bind style dns
> > server.
> >
> > I.e. enter in an ip address, a domain name and the purpose of the
> > machine/connection (I.e. mail, general etc.) and write a zones file if
> > it's not already there, append to a zones file if it is there, do the
> > same for the reverse lookup side of things etc.
> >
> > On 3/9/07, Howard <howard-nzlug at fox.co.nz> wrote:
> >> on 8/03/2007 1:00 a.m. Nevyn wrote:
> >>> Then there's always the other little fun bit - making sure I
> >>> have a DNS server somewhere so that I don't have to remember silly
> >>> 'lil numbers. This is definitely something I don't wanna have to do as
> >>> they always seem so full blown and ugly. I.e. all I want to do is say
> >>> "This is the name, map it to this ip addy" and be done with it.
> >>
> >> Hi Nevyn
> >>
> >> check out Dnsmasq, which comes with IPCop, DD-WRT and other small
> >> firewall type distros.
> >>
> >> http://thekelleys.org.uk/dnsmasq/doc.html
> >>
> >> It is a simple DNS proxy & dhcp server in one which serves a local
> >> /etc/hosts to the network so you don't have to manage local hosts files.
> >>
> >> You can see how simple the setup is in this howto:
> >> http://www.enterprisenetworkingplanet.com/netos/print.php/3377351
> >>
> >> cheers
> >> Howard
> >>