[ale] DNS Server Propagation

[Gabriel Donnell]

Hello Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts,

I have setup a Linux based network for a Dental company to handle our Internet
presence.  The router is a FlowPoint DSL router.  The Firewall & Server are
both Linux systems.  The Server handles our DHCP, DNS, E-Mail & Web Services.
The system has worked extremely well for about 6 months.

Our problems are with our DSL provider.  For now, we are using SpeakEasy, but
we will be changing soon since we completed our required one year service.
However, we need a solution for our DNS problem until we change our ISP.

Basically, we had a lot of problems with SpeakEasy handling our forward &
reverse DNS resolutions for our domain (DentFirst.com) and IP addresses
(216.27.174.112-127).  Therefore, I configured our Server to handle our DNS
resolutions.  We updated our domain with Network Solutions to point to our DNS
server as our primary DNS server.  Our DNS server has been registered as our
primary DNS for over 1 month.  However, there are still a lot sites that are
not able to resolve our domain.

We are really able to feel this problem because serveral people cannot send us
e-mail.  By investigating some of the failed e-mail messages, I identified
that the e-mail servers cannot resolve our mail exchanger (mx.DentFirst.com).

When I use the DNS server used by those e-mail servers, I determined that
those name servers cannot determine one one of the following:
1. Name of our mail exchanger (host -t mx DentFirst.com).
2. IP address of our mail exchanger (host mx.DentFirst.com).

I would like to know if anyone knows what I can do to publicize our DNS server
to the DNS servers on the Internet.  We have the correct information posted in
Network Solutions' database.  However, it does not seem like the DNS servers
on the Internet are getting updated with our DNS information listed with our
registrar.

I requested SpeakEasy to direct their DNS to use the IP address of our primary
DNS  server (216.27.174.122) to forward unresolved requests.  However, they do
not do that.  They want us to pay $10/month for their DNS service.  That is
not a good solution for us since we had to setup our own DNS server because
we had problems with their DNS service.

Please let me know what else I can do.  For those of you who have setup a DNS
server on the Internet, please let me know what you did.

Thank You,
Gabriel Donnell
DentFirst System Administrator

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