What Is BIND?

Several different DNS servers are available under different names. The most common, and the one you'll find on your Linux system, is the Berkeley Internet Nameserver Daemon (BIND). As of this writing, the current major version number is 8.

About Domains

Before you go further, it is helpful to understand a little about domains. You've seen domain names before. They are in the form of http://bar.org. and contain at least two parts. Reading from the right, the org part is called a top-level domain. A number of top-level domains exist. In the United States, currently, are the following top-level domains:

  • .com—Commercial entities (businesses)

  • .org—Non-commercial organizations

  • .net—Network affiliated organizations

  • .mil—U.S. military branches ...

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