Host/Service checks

Nagios Nagios Configuration support
1

Hello,
I am pretty new to nagios, and i have encounter a few probs on the way:

For example:
Is there a way in which: If the host is down, for the system not to check the services on that host?
Ex: host A is checked and the ping times out (the host is down)
Host A has 3 services - dhcp/dns/apache
If host A is don those 3 services will be ignored till the host is up again (it is ANNOYING to see the entire screen RED when actually only the firewall is active for example)

2

Actualy nagios does not check services on host that is in DOWN state. Although services if shown as CRITICAL that does not generate notification.