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Date:      Sat, 2 Nov 2002 17:30:07 +0000
From:      Matthew Seaman <m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk>
To:        freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Resolving hostnames takes "forever"
Message-ID:  <20021102173007.GC1116@happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophi>
In-Reply-To: <1036250840.74419.67.camel@prometheus>
References:  <200211021432.19756.freebsd.nospam@mekanix.dk> <20021102144105.GA1116@happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophi> <1036250840.74419.67.camel@prometheus>

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On Sat, Nov 02, 2002 at 10:27:19AM -0500, Alex(ander Sendzimir) wrote:
> Wow. This has been extremely useful to me, too. I have virtually the
> same setup and problem.
> 
> If I'm understanding what you [Dr Seaman] are saying, if I analyze the
> dns packet data, I might be able to determine if my ISP's DNS software
> is broken? I would like to try this because I have a suspicion this is
> very likely.

Errr... at the risk of setting off a massive wave of complaints to ISP
support lines, yes.  Please, unless you are extremely sure of your
facts, be wary of making any wild accusations --- there are any number
of reasons for DNS to flake out.  Even such things as faulty cabling
at your site: UDP services like DNS mostly is can be hit
disproportionally harder by intermittent packet loss than TCP services
like HTTP.

> Finally, would it be worth while to run my own DNS server? Will setting
> it up be more trouble than it's worth?

Not knowing anything about your site, that's not something I can give
a definite answer to.  However, running a DNS cache on a local LAN
segment is pretty simple to do, and usually improves performance.  If
you run the /etc/namedb/make-localhost script and then fire up the
default named with the config that comes with FreeBSD, it will act as
a caching nameserver.

Add:

    named_enable="YES"
    named_flags="-u bind -g bind"

to /etc/rc.conf, and put the IP number of your server as the first
choice in /etc/resolv.conf:

    nameserver 12.34.56.78

for the correct value of "12.34.56.78"

Note however that this configuration will allow anyone on the net who
can get packets to port 53 of your server to use your named to do
recursive lookups --- consult the named.conf(5) man page and the
documentation at http://www.isc.org/products/BIND/docs/index.html to
find out how to configure it better.

	Cheers,

	Matthew

-- 
Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil.                       26 The Paddocks
                                                      Savill Way
                                                      Marlow
Tel: +44 1628 476614                                  Bucks., SL7 1TH UK

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