Q:

Internal DNS Server's Interactions with Local Client Computers... How do they work?

I'm setting up Split Horizon DNS. I have an internal DNS server, running Ubuntu Server 10.04. Everything has been set up properly as per this article's instructions. (I know that it is a mail server but I figured this may be a good starting point since their instructions are complete)

On my local DNS server, 
dig mywebsite.com 
returns the proper IP address to the DNS server.

Now, on my Windows PC, if I
ping mywebsite.com
it says that it ... could not find host...

Under Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) Properties the option Obtain DNS server addresses automatically is checked. D-Link DIR-632 is my router and is also acting as a DHCP server. I assume that the reason why the ping is not working is because the request isn't hitting the DNS server.
My question is, what do I have to do to make sure that the client computers all use the local DNS server addresses for domain names configured on the local DNS server?

A:

You need to tell your DHCP server to hand out the IP address of your DNS server as the DNS server in DHCP requests.  Doing that on your little router may or may not be possible; if it isn't (or, honestly, even if it is) I'd turn the DHCP server off on your router and run a real DHCP server off your DNS server, it's far more flexible.

