[CLUE-Tech] Failed DNS lookup with 'host' command

[Jeffery Cann]

Greetings. 

I have a LAN in my house behind a siemens (hardware) router / firewall.  From 
my Linux box, I can ssh and web browse with no problem.  However, when I try 
to use the 'host' command to do a DNS lookup, it seems that the routing maybe 
goofy:

$  ping yahoo.com
PING yahoo.com (216.115.108.243) from 192.168.254.8 : 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from img3.yahoo.com (216.115.108.243): icmp_seq=0 ttl=241 
time=54.967 msec

$ host -l yahoo.com
;; Connection to 192.168.254.254#53(192.168.254.254) for yahoo.com failed: 
connection refused

In my /etc/resolv.conf, the nameserver IP address is:  192.168.254.254.  
Given my inexperience with networking, I think this makes sense because it 
should indicate that I need to exit my LAN for DNS lookup (no, I'm not 
running BIND).

Since my Linux box is running on the internal (192) network, I assume this is 
a problem with my router configuration.  Is this correct?  

What do I need to fix to get the 'host' command working?  Again, web 
browsing, ssh, ftp all work correctly.  

I appreciate suggestions.

Thanks!
Jeff