very interesting . . . Yes I was aware of it. Contrary to my and the other engineer's preference we don't run our own DNS here, in fact we manage well over 100 servers (consisting of RH, w2k3, and Solaris) via host files. Its been a thorn in my side since I started here last Feb, and its on my "if we ever get up with projects, stuff I'd like to do list."
That's interesting about the FW, I had no idea any new ports were required . . . I'll have to look into it in greater detail, thanks for the heads up.