SMTP: Locations of Domain Name Service (DNS) Files

This article was previously published under Q105361

The Microsoft Mail Gateway to SMTP uses another host in the TCP/IP network to route mail for it. This host can use domain name service (DNS) or host tables to hold routing information. DNS is more complicated than host tables, but it provides more functionality.

The most common DNS is the Berkeley Internet Name Domain (BIND) server. The default locations for DNS files are:

   /etc/named.boot     (this file tells where other files are)
   /var/named/         (this subdirectory holds other DNS files)