zone "nodeone.swn" { type forward; forwarders { 10.15.3.1; }; }; so that goes in yer bind so if it asks for xxx.nodeone.swn, bind says. oh fuck i know nothing about that sneds to nodeone.swn (10.15.3.1) http://seattlewireless.net/DnsMasqSetup that has the node side really all it is is this: server=/swn/10.13.13.14 domain=nodename.swn 10.13.13.14 = gir in this case does that make sense? i'm guesing if you're using a real tld zone "nodes.realtld.com" { then it'd be node1.nodes.realtld.com you're not puttin in A records or CNAMES or anything like that this is all pure /etc/named.conf