Bind sanity check

[Randy Edwards <redwards@golgotha.net>]

   I'm going to swap my presently-hosted domain over to my own box here
which is at the end of a DSL line.  I've been going through reading the DNS
how-to to set up bind.  I'm pretty sure I have things mostly right but there
are enough differences between the how-to's config files and Debian's setup
that I'm not 100% sure; so I thought I might ask anyone more experienced to
check my configuration out.

  The "domain" is simple: just one public IP address (216.64.109.143)
aliased with the typical domain machine names (e.g. www, mail, ns, etc.).

Here's what I've added to the bottom of Debian's default named.conf:

-snip-
zone "golgotha.net" {
       type master;
       file "/etc/bind/db.golgotha";
};

zone "109.64.216.in-addr.arpa" {
       type master;
       file "/etc/bind/db.rev.golgotha";
};
-snip-

and the contents of my db.golgotha file:

-snip-
; BIND zone data file for golgotha.net domain
;
$TTL    604800
@       IN      SOA     golgotha.net. spartacus.golgotha.net. (
                        199912041       ; Serial
                         604800         ; Refresh
                          86400         ; Retry
                        2419200         ; Expire
                         604800 )       ; Negative Cache TTL
;
                NS      ns
                MX      10 mail
localhost       A       127.0.0.1

ns              A       216.64.109.143
                MX      10 mail
                HINFO   "i386-based" "GNU/Linux"

www             A       216.64.109.143
                MX      10 mail
                HINFO   "i386-based" "GNU/Linux"

mail            A       216.64.109.143
                MX      10 mail
                HINFO   "i386-based" "GNU/Linux"

ftp             A       216.64.109.143
                MX      10 mail
                HINFO   "i386-based" "GNU/Linux"
-snip-

and also the db.rev.golgotha file:

-snip-
;
; BIND zone data file for golgotha.net domain
;
$TTL    604800
@       IN      SOA     golgotha.net. spartacus.golgotha.net. (
                        199912041       ; Serial
                         604800         ; Refresh
                          86400         ; Retry
                        2419200         ; Expire
                         604800 )       ; Negative Cache TTL
;
                NS      ns.golgotha.net.

216.64.109.143  PTR     ns.golgotha.net.
216.64.109.143  PTR     www.golgotha.net.
216.64.109.143  PTR     mail.golgotha.net.
216.64.109.143  PTR     ftp.golgotha.net.
216.64.109.143  PTR     spartacus.golgotha.net.
-snip-

Questions: First, can anyone see any errors/problems/stupidity in the above?

   Secondly, what's the best way to implement private (192.168.*.*) machines
into this DNS/domain? Is it best to have the private network machines in a
bogus domain or not in a DNS at all but using a hosts file?  Or is there a
sane/secure way I can list the private machines in the DNS under their
regular domain name?

   Another, near trivial question, why is the Debian preference to use
seconds for refresh/retry instead of the how-to's 8H and more readable
format?  Is this just to save the computational work of parsing "8H" and
converting it?

   Thanks in advance.

-- 
 Regards,                | Debian GNU/ __      o  http://www.debian.org
 .                       |            / /     _  _  _  _  _ __  __
 Randy                   |           / /__  / / / \// //_// \ \/ /
 (redwards@golgotha.net) |          /____/ /_/ /_/\/ /___/  /_/\_\
 http://www.golgotha.net | because lockups should only be for convicts.