Software for providing DNS and DHCP services have typically come from ISC in the form of BIND and dhcpd. While these software packages are quite robust and, for the most part, quite secure, there are other alternatives that may work better depending on your situation. For smaller home or office networks, managing BIND and dhcpd may be overkill.

Every web site needs a domain name. Every domain name needs DNS. Yet, it’s often overlooked and misunderstood. If you own a domain you need to understand DNS. And here’s the low-down as well as some helpful Linux tools.