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Old 18th July 2013
frcc frcc is offline
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Default DNS and purpose of .my.domain on a LAN

Hi Folks
I know this is a "dumb question" but I can't get out of my mental funk in trying to figure
out the following so I can't help myself.

First:
Our WAN/LAN configuration
We have (8) FQDN's externally registered and pointing --> to our (1) one static IP
Address. This Address (currently) is handled by our off the shelf in house router.
The router routes all incomming internet traffic on port 80 to an internal webserver hosting
8 different virtual websites. These are hosted on an OpenBSD box running
apache using Virtual(name hosts)Hosts. This setup is working fine, as is any of
our other machines accessing each other on the LAN or WAN.

So, am i understanding this correctly......
DNS from WAN side is handled (resolved) by our DNS service pointing to our Static IP
at our router and routed to our webserver..for incomming internet traffic on port 80.

DNS on our LAN is being handled (resolved) at this point by entries in /etc/hosts files.
and by entering host names or being resolved via our router when we enter
addresses (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx) on the internal network. (using router generated DHCP
address's)

Requests to the WAN from our LAN by specific machines are routed back to each
machine by maintaining STATES and using IP proivider DNS entries in our router
tables..

Question:
What is the PURPOSE of the LAN side ".my.domain" appendage to the hostname
condisering

The eight (8) different Public FQDN's have nothing to do with LAN except they are
hosted virtually on our webserver. In this case I understand the reason for .my.domain
in its usage and routing (i.e. example.com) Otherwise someone entering
example.com on the WAN could not connect to our server. These eight
domain names are not used anywhere else on and of course are Chrooted on the
OpenBSD box.
So:
a.) etc/host files are identifying hosts on the LAN
b.) LAN requests to WAN are handled by router setting DNS addresses and
STATE tracking.
c.) Router has route tables enabling routing to different LAN machines by ip
address when address's xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx without names are used.

So......if I create an appendage to a hostname (.my.domain) on my LAN that has no
WAN registration or resolution requirements what is its purpose ????????

OR is .my.domain appendage needed on a LAN with no external resolution
requirements ??

I have struggled with this concept for a long time and am now Re-Reading
documenttation covering DNS so obviously I am an idiot!

Some key works from you may help joggle a brain cell.

Last edited by frcc; 19th July 2013 at 01:12 AM.
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Old 19th July 2013
jggimi's Avatar
jggimi jggimi is offline
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You're not an idiot; these are not idiotic questions.

"my.domain" is just an easy way to pick a local domain name that would never be a valid Internet domain name. I've had systems where I used "local" instead. It's entirely up to you what you pick. The reason to pick something invalid is to speed up any responses to DNS resolution requests. A domain that is an invalid Top Level Domain (.com, .edu, .uk, .org, .tv) gets a real quick negative response from servers, including the Internet root servers.

You don't need a local domain name. You can name your computers without them. Since they're not directly addressable from the Internet, using a local domain name is a convenience for you and your network. You might have multiple local domains, as well.

Take a look at the resolv.conf(5) man page. You'll see two options that can help with local domain name use: domain and search.

As the number of devices on your network grows, you may find it easier to have a local Domain Name Server rather than keeping /etc/hosts files in sync on all your platforms. These not only provide local name resolution, they can also act as caches for "real" Internet facing Domain Name Servers such as the servers provided by your ISP.

A local Domain Name Server can be used whether or not you have .my.domain or .local or .frcc or just computers with names like "John" and "Marsha".
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Old 19th July 2013
frcc frcc is offline
Don't Worry Be Happy!
 
Join Date: Jul 2011
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Default purpose of LAN .my.domain

Thankyou !
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