Hi Chris, Yes my email server is CGP on Mac OSX. Even better, is that we have an xserve that could probably do the DNS. I hadn't thought of that before. But before I spend a lot of time learning BIND, I'm thinking that MacDNS or QuickDNS on Mac OS 9 would be a lot faster to learn & implement. I have a never-used copy of Men & Mice Quick DNS on my shelf leftover from another project a few years ago, and I'm sure I can dig up a Mac to run it. We have over 60 computers at this location, most of them Macs, so the DNS idea is going to be better than the host files idea.
Some of the computers are getting their IP & dns info via DHCP, but plenty are manually entered. I agree that running an internal DNS server will be less trouble in the long run. I'll just have to learn all about it. Thanks for your input. :-) Best, Dave Nathanson Mac Medix in reply to ([EMAIL PROTECTED]), chris's message of 9:34 PM, 9/29/05 >>1) Should I run a local DNS server to map mail.company.com to the local >>IP before it can get out of the building? I'm not running a local DNS >>now, just using the ISP's dns servers. >>(THE Chris, the One and Only Chris) has already nailed this problem to >>the wall? That would also mean that I might be able to get away with >>[EMAIL PROTECTED] which would also reduce the traffic crossing through >>the router. >> >>3) Something else? > >Your CGP server should be some flavor of *nix, OS X, or Windows... all of >which should have a DNS server easily available and built in. That is >likely going to be your easiest route in the long run. If you are running >it on OS X or Windows, getting the DNS server up and running should be >fairly easy. If you are on Linux or one of the other *nix that CGP works >with, then it might be a little harder to get the DNS going right, but >should still be easy. > >Or, grab a copy of MacDNS and run it on any old Mac you have kicking >around. It works from System 7 thru OS 9 and is 68k so you can run it on >just about any mac you can find (actually, I think it may work under >System 6 as well, so that means about the only Mac you can't run it on >will be the 128 and MacXL... although you may have a hard time getting it >going on a 512k or 512ke only because they don't have SCSI so no easy way >to add ethernet). > >You should be able to get MacDNS up and running in a few minutes. It is a >free app from Apple, if you can't find it, let me know, I know I have a >copy of it here somewhere (I used to run it ages ago). > > >Your other option, if you don't have too many machines to deal with, is >to set an entry in the Hosts file for mail.company.com pointing to >192.168.1.6. The Hosts file is checked first on a DNS lookup, so the Mac >will use that entry and never bother to look at what the internet says >that domain resolves to. This is quick and easy if you only have a >handful of computers... but once you cross that 5 or so line, it gets >more and more time intensive to go to each computer and make the change. > >Of course, this all also assumes you are getting your DNS servers via >DHCP. That way, if you setup your own DNS server, you just change the >DHCP table to put your own DNS server first and let DHCP update all the >client computers. If you are not doing DNS servers via DHCP, then you are >still stuck going to each computer to make the DNS server changes... in >which case the Hosts file solution looks much more attractive. Just keep >in mind, if you do the Hosts file route, you fix this problem and only >this problem. Later, when you need to change the server IP or add another >server, you have to go back to each computer. Had you gone the DNS route, >you would just update the zone record on your DNS server and be done with >it. > >If it was me, I'd do Hosts if I had less than 10 machines. If I had more >than 10 machines, I'd do DNS. > >-chris ><http://www.mythtech.net> > >______ ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe send a mail message with a SUBJECT line of "unsubscribe" to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> or <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
