proper network setup

I tried drawing ASCII art and it didn't work. So I'm gonna discribe the network setup. Try to visualize it.

Router 1(R1) is a linux computer connected to the internet using a static ip address. A hub(H) is connected to that computer. Computer 1(C1) is a linux box. Computer 2 (C2) is a dual booter XP/RH9 machine. C1 and C2 are connected to the hub which is connected to R1. Router 2(R2) is a cheap little $75 dollar belkin router which is also connected to the hub(H). Computers C3 - C5 are all dual boot computers, running Windows and RH9. These 3 computers are connected to Router 2, which in turn is connected to the hub. PS2 is a playstation two with the broadband modem which is connected to the Router 2 which is connected to the hub which is connected to Router1 which has the internet connection.
Are you following?

These are my questions:
1) If I want to set up a dns server, do I have to set it up in Router 1, the computer that has the physical internet connection or can I set it up in Computer 1. I guess if I can set it up in computer 1 I will need to directed all inbound connections towards that computer so that dns translation/magic/whatever can occur. I don't know.

2) if I want to set up a secondary dns server, do I need to have another static ip, or can one ip address set up to have 2 dns servers.

3) Is is possible to have the computers (C3 - C5) connected to router 2 take advantage of the dns sever even though it's in another subnet.

4) For the following, lets assume that I set up the dns successfully pointing to the site foobar.com . Can I set up a apache, say on computer 2, and have the requests to my site, point to that machine, even though it's on a private ip address.

5) My playstation 2, and gamecube, currently are making use of the internet connection. If I set this thing up, can I still have them work.

6) Has anyone that read DNS & BIND, 4th edtion by O'reilly thinks that the chapteres are not in the correct order and the the book could be structure alot better.

thanks

First of all, I understood everything. You explained things very well. This is rare, consider yourself complimented.

1) You may set it up on R1 if you wish. You may also set it up on C1 if you wish. In the latter case you most definately need to setup routing to that computer for incoming connections and UDP requests to port 53.

2) Some registrars require you to have 2 IP addresses for your host DNS server domains. Most registrars don't care. I consider it pointless to have 2 IP's that point to the same machine - at least where it concerns dns servers.

3) Absolutely. Think about it this way. I use comcast as my ISP. Their caching servers are on a different subnet on the comcast network, and I use them for my resolving needs. Seems like a no brainer when looked at it like that.

4) All you have to do is route incoming requests on port 80 to the private IP of C2. All requests will then be targeted at the private IP, and apache will never know that the original target IP was your public IP.

5) They'll still work, provided you don't break something.

6) Dunno, I read RFC's to learn about DNS, and I read the BIND documentation to learn about BIND.

thanks, you the man.
I think I didn't explain question 2 clear enought, though. Sorry about that.
I want to have 2 dns servers set up, a master and a slave. If I want to do this do I need to have 2 static ip addresses or can I set up 2 dns servers, on 2 different machines, say C1 and C2, with only 1 ip address.

no, I understood the question perfectly. Just know that I think it would be pointless for you to get a second IP. Create 2 hosts like ns1 and ns2 and point them to the same IP.

Cool. Thanks alot.

So, when people talk about having a secondary or tertiary dns server, they usually have only one ip address and two or three machines that have the dns server set up?

The professional approach is to have backup servers (secondary a.k.a. slave servers) located on completely different networks. This way if one server goes down (loss of power, internet connection dies), the other can pick up the slack. That's the theory anyway. However, you don't want ANY of your servers to be down or you WILL lose traffic.

Since you would not be having the second IP on a differnet network I consider it pointless for you to have a second IP. Just use 1 IP and take extra special care it stays up.