Forwarding DNS Queries to Google Public DNS Using BIND

To configure BIND (Berkeley Internet Name Domain) to forward DNS queries to Google Public DNS, follow these steps:

Prerequisites

• Ensure that BIND is installed on your server.
• You have administrative access to the BIND configuration files.

Steps to Configure BIND

Open the BIND Configuration File:

• The main configuration file is usually located at /etc/named.conf or /etc/bind/named.conf depending on your Linux distribution.
• Use a text editor to open the file. For example:
  bash sudo nano /etc/named.conf

Configure Forwarders:

• Add the following lines within the options block of the configuration file to set Google Public DNS as the forwarder:

   options {
       // Other options...

       forwarders {
           8.8.8.8;  // Primary Google Public DNS
           8.8.4.4;  // Secondary Google Public DNS
       };

       forward only;  // Only forward queries to the specified forwarders
   };

Save and Exit:

• Save the changes to the configuration file and exit the text editor.

Check the Configuration:

• Before restarting BIND, check the configuration for syntax errors:

   sudo named-checkconf

Restart BIND Service:

• Restart the BIND service to apply the changes:

   sudo systemctl restart named    # For systems using systemd

or

   sudo service bind9 restart       # For systems using init.d

Test the Configuration:

• You can test if the forwarding is working correctly by using the dig command:

   dig @8.8.8.8 example.com

• The response should show that the query was resolved using Google Public DNS.

Conclusion

You have now successfully configured BIND to forward DNS queries to Google Public DNS. This setup can improve the reliability and speed of DNS resolution for your network.