set up a home caching-nameserver (centos 5)

yum install bind bind-utils bind-libs bind-chroot caching-nameserver system-config-bind

Open the file /var/named/chroot/etc/named.conf and add the following lines to the global options section:

forwarders { xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx; xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx; }; #IP of upstream ISP nameserver(s)
forward only; #rely completely on our upstream nameservers

if named.conf doesn’t exist and it didn’t on mine run system-config-bind it will create it.

chmod 644 named.conf

Check the syntax using the named-checkconf utility provided by the bind RPM:
named-checkconf named.conf

Modify the /etc/resolv.conf file to the following:
nameserver 127.0.0.1

If you are running a DHCP server on your router make sure your /etc/resolv.conf file does not get overwritten whenever your DHCP lease is renewed. To prevent this from happening, modify /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 (replace eth0 with your network interface if different) and make sure the following settings are set:

BOOTPROTO=dhcp
PEERDNS=no
TYPE=Ethernet

Go ahead and start the nameserver as root and configure to start in runlevels 2-5:
service named start
chkconfig named on

If you are running a firewall on the nameserver system, make sure clients have access to port 53. An example iptables rule for the 192.168.15.0/24 subnet would be:

iptables -A INPUT -s 192.168.15.0/24 -p udp –dport 53 -j ACCEPT

service iptables save