Re: Random NT DNS question

Joe Touch (touch@ISI.EDU)
Mon, 12 Apr 1999 17:16:26 -0700 (PDT)

> From fork-owner@kragen.dnaco.net Mon Apr 12 17:04:07 1999
> Delivered-To: fork@kragen.dnaco.net
> From: Dan Kohn <dan@teledesic.com>
> To: "'mark.symons@nms.za.eds.com'" <mark.symons@nms.za.eds.com>
> Cc: "Fork (E-mail)" <fork@kragen.dnaco.net>
> Subject: Random NT DNS question
> Date: Mon, 12 Apr 1999 17:03:24 -0700
> X-Ms-Tnef-Correlator: <EF5D1B2FF253D11195AA00805FE673BF0129EBE3@tdmail.teledesic.com>
>
> I notice when web browsing with IE 5 (and anything else) that DNS
> lookups are often the slowest part. The obvious answer would seem to me
> to install a DNS server as NT service that than queries the "real" DNS
> server when the locally cached information has exceeded the TTL.
> However, none of the software you review on
> <http://www.dns.net/dnsrd/mark/wintools.html> seems to support that.
>
> I am now planning to install TweakDUN
> <http://www.pattersondesigns.com/tweakdun/>, which goes back to the bad
> old days of host files in order to improve performance.
>
> Any thoughts?

Look for a DNS server, rather than DNS tools (the latter are for
debugging).

Then
1. set your resolv.conf (or the moral equivalent) to:

nameserver 127.0.0.1
domain isi.edu (or whathever your preferred suffix is)

2. set your config file to act as a SECONDARY for your local domain

i.e.:

cache . named.root
primary 0.0.127.IN-ADDR.ARPA localhost.rev

secondary isi.edu 128.9.176.32 isi.zone
secondary 9.128.IN-ADDR.ARPA 128.9.176.32 9-128.zone

where localhost.rev looks like:

@ IN SOA localhost.isi.edu. root.localhost.isi.edu. (
19980701 ; Serial
3600 ; Refresh
900 ; Retry
3600000 ; Expire
3600 ) ; Minimum
IN NS localhost.isi.edu.
1 IN PTR localhost.isi.edu.

The general idea is to look like a secondary for your preferred suffices.
It's better than the hosts.txt file, because it is updated when your local
DNS decides, rather than when you see a problem :-)

Joe