Chapter 3. Where Do I Start?

"What do you call yourself?" the Fawn said at last. Such a soft sweet voice it had!

"I wish I knew!" thought poor Alice. She answered, rather sadly, "Nothing, just now."

"Think again," it said: "that won't do."

Alice thought, but nothing came of it. "Please, would you tell me what you call yourself?" she said timidly. "I think that might help a little."

"I'll tell you, if you come a little further on," the Fawn said. "I can't remember here."

Now that you understand the theory behind the Domain Name System, we can attend to more practical matters. Before you set up your zones, you may need to get the BIND software. Usually, it's included as a standard part of most Unix-based operating systems. Often, though, you'll want to seek out a more recent version with all the latest functionality and security enhancements.

Once you've got BIND, you need to decide on a domain name for your main zone—which may not be quite as easy as it sounds, since it entails finding an appropriate place in the Internet namespace. That decided, you need to contact the administrators of the parent of the zone whose domain name you've chosen.

One thing at a time, though. Let's talk about where to get BIND.