FILE db.kulai:  This file translates names to ip addresses. I use ***** to seperate the file listing from the rest of this article, so do not put them into your file. Bold items are explaned below - bold is not part of a regular file.  Here is what mine looks like:

**************************************************************
@  IN SOA master.kulai.org. jpollman.kulai.org. (
   1;
   10800;
   3600;
   604800;
   86400 );

       IN NS   master.kulai.org.
master IN A    192.168.124.10
 

mail   IN A 192.168.124.10
www    IN A 192.168.124.10
news   IN A 192.168.124.10

localhost    IN A    127.0.0.1

fserver IN A  192.168.124.11
jc      IN A  192.168.124.1
phillip IN A  192.168.124.20
 

**************************************************************
NOTE: The biggest problem in creating these files is missing a period where one is required. The period says: this is the end of the name. Without the period, the domain name will be tacked on, so master.kulai.org will become: master.kulai.org.kulai.org  In other words, the period is the difference between absolute and relative names.

@  This is shorthand for the base domain name. IMPORTANT: the @ has to be on the top line and have no spaces in front of it.
master.kulai.org.  This is the server's name.
jpollman.kulai.org.  This is actually an email address with the @ replaced by a period. If there is a problem, this person will be notified via email.
All those numbers: These are the default times. If you want to change them, read the books - the defaults work just fine for home use.
IN NS this line tells named that master.kulai.org is the name server. Note, the first part of the line is blank - named will put in kulai.org, and the name given at the end of the line must be a name from an "IN A" line listed somewhere in this file.
IN A  these lines tell named what the name-to-ip relationship is. Note, I did not end the names with a period (.) so named will automatically add kulai.org (my domain) on to the end of them. It knows to use kulai.org because I declared that name as a zone in the /etc/named.conf: zone "kulai.org"
IN CNAME: this was formerly used to make additional names aliases for the same ip. It is not needed any more - in fact it is discouraged. So, my mail, web, and news servers are all on master.kulai.org. I could just as easily have used only the server's name, i.e. master.kulai.org for all the services, but mail.kulai.org is how it is usually setup at the ISPs. Also note: I used an ip address and not a name like CNAME used to use.

Note: you have to list the server and localhost as regular computers with "IN A" lines.