Amiga Name Servers???

[AMC258]

I don't think running a nameserver on an Amiga is stupid if you have one you don't do anything else with.  But, it would make more sense to me to buy a $10 Sparcstation and use that.  Solaris runs forever if you don't mess with it, Sparcstations don't use a lot of power, they're quiet, small, and relatively fast.
I have an Axil (Sparcstation 20 clone) nameserver on my domain.

Here's a good reason to have your own nameserver:  It's LIGHTNING fast.  You wouldn't believe how much faster web serfing is when you have your own private active nameserver instead of using the same one 400 other cable subscribers are using.

[AMC258]

The TCP/IP stack is not running long enough to provide an adequate cache, especially based on your assumption that an Amiga doesn't stay booted long enough to viably host a nameserver.

There are about two dozen users using my nameserver.  I don't honestly know how many Time Warner Business Class customers I share a nameserver with, or what else their server does, but I have actually measured the difference between using their server and mein, and mine is on average about four times faster.  Granted, that was five years ago, but I doubt it's changed much.
And, mine never goes down.  Theirs does occasionally.

[AMC258]

Bind 8.4.6 and Bind 9.4.2 are available as precompiled packages for Solaris 8, 9, and 10.

I run Solaris 9(SunOS 5.9).  I used to run Solaris 7.  I wouldn't miss much going back to 7 if I had to.  9 and 10 can be had for free from Sun.  I haven't bothered with 10 just because I didn't see the point in migrating all my Sparc's, and I'm sure you lose more disk space with 10.

Sun hardware is top notch.  (We have C= to thank for that!)

Solaris is a whole different animalix if you're used to Linux, but I really do prefer Solaris.  The only *real* difference is the amount of precompiled/preconfigured software.  There is far more for Linux, but it's nice to just go to www.sunfreeware.com and install a package, and that's it.
Keep in mind you can run Linux on Sparc too.

[AMC258]

BIND.
Sorry, when I wrote the first draft of that I was busy trying to figure out why the heck I'm running a nonstandard version of bind, and which one came with Solaris 9.  I have 9.1.0, and that may be what came with it, I'm not sure.

I don't know who wrote this DNS for Dummies, but on the subject of running your own nameserver, I quote from it:

Perhaps you're just a power user and want extra speed from your machine - this is one way to do it.  You could also do this "just because you can" and it's good for reducing network traffic, so you might as well!

[AMC258]

Both versions are available from www.sunfreeware.com precompiled.  Package installation takes time, but not like compiling.

I highly recommend that book.  It is great.