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By the way, SMTP and IMAP folks, you're way ahead of the game. Your stuff is already reached the point of sublime unusability past which no fully compliant implementation is possible. Well done!

That's pretty much the key to the whole thing; it may have started as to a group that perhaps reached into three figures, but they were on the right track.

Anybody can read the RFCs, and there are probably millions who have now (well, maybe not all of them). They are among the most non-intimidating technical/specification documents I've ever gone through.

There's one little collection I wish had been around when I first got network access. Sending emails was a mind-fuck when you had to piss about with bang paths.

This might not be of help, but while I don't know of any DNS servers for Win2K Pro/WinXP/WinVista, I'm pretty sure that their Server line comes with DNS services already available. After doing a Google search, this came up.

Good luck!

http://www.dns.net/dnsrd/servers/unix.html

DNS is over 20 years old. The Net has obviously changed radically in those 20 years. I'm not saying throw all the ideas in DNS out the window, but either we, the geeks, work out an alternative in the spirit of RFCs, or some patent-wielding corporation or UN bozo committee will do it.

Heck, just imagine a system where people didn't have to think "www.some-name-hope-you-hyphoned-it.com" when looking up an address, and instead can use a more human-friendly system. I mean, I know it is fun watching the non-geeks suffer under concepts we find second-nature, but ...

Look at IP vs. IPv6; times change; requirements change.

Any experts who are up to date with stuff like:
http://www.dns.net/dnsrd/rfc/
want to comment on what is underway? (Yes I did peek around Google a bit.)

Ok, clueless wonders, before making inane comments about how DNS does/doesn't work; please read the RFCs.

DNS related RFCs
http://www.dns.net/dnsrd/rfc/

Personally speaking, I've never had a problem with my DNS servers being ignored. Then again, I took the time to educate myself on how DNS actually works. I got the O'Reilly book 'BIND', read the faqs on djbdns, played with MS dns until I got sick (so, like under 5 minutes with that one), and set up some real world, hard working name servers. I ran into many problems along the - I couldn't see the DNS changes outside of my network, they weren't updating correctly, etc...

So you know what did about? I fixed my damn mistakes, and the shinizzle started to work just fine. Yeah, that's right. I made some mistakes setting things up for the first time. I can admit it, I'm a big man (and I was young and needed the money).

Anyway, my point is this - It doesn't matter what DNS server you use (as long as it's not MS DNS), or what your religion is - If you read the documentation, and I mean read it, don't just skim over it and say "Uh huh.. oh that's interesting, I knew that.. ble. This book was written by a monkey, I don't need to make my crap work right", and you set up (initially at least) per the documentation - THEN IT WILL WORK.

Update your serials, most cach's just check the SOA - this is quicker and less costly than pulling the record down. If the serials match, then no change was made. You can even use a tool for administration (Webmin? not my thing, but you know...) that does this for you. PUT THE DAMN DOTS AFTER THE RECORDS.. this is the biggest problem newbs seen to have with dns. Yes, it's a period, just like ending a sentence. Oh, thats right, you learned l337 sp34k in skool. Yeah, you're useless (not you per se, but a generalization of the 90's generation).

Check out www.dns.net, it's a great resource, really.

Most importantly, make sure your stuff works before you complain about how the world doesn't like you. If you don't, it's incompetence, and I've fired people for less.

Sorry for the harsh tone of the message, but I'm a bitter sysadmin with the HIPAA dedline tomorrow and fresh-out-of-college grad that needs to be trained, and I had to vent somewhere... I mean, I'm saving that "Another insane UNIX sysadmin killed is co-workers" headline for another Slashdot day...

The 'S' in DNS stands for system, not server.

"DNS server" is correct, and not redundant.

You know I find the flaming of ones OS preference just stupid no matter which camp you are in. I don't care what OS you use, I don't care what OS 'you say you use'. We all use what is either required of us, or what we choose to use for the particular need. With that said, I would NEVER use an MS based OS for the following. Anything that might cause someone to die, get hurt, or lose america's finance records.

The power being controlled could kill, as older folks and infants can not regulate body temperature as well as us young adults can. Hospital systems that are used to do heart surgery or brain surgery, would not be candidates for a 'blue screen of death'.

Unix/Linux/BSD are more reliable, and have been proven. Best example that comes to mind The Internet

Stop attacking each other for OS preference, who cares.

DNS is a directory service for god's sake, not a god damn search engine.

Right

DNS maps domain names to IP addresses and vice versa, nothing more

Wrong

With respect to monoculture, there are at least four DNS server implementations out there - BIND 4/8, BIND 9, djbdns and Microsoft. If you're afraid of the BIND monoculture and you're running BIND 8, you do have alternatives. Personally I run BIND 9 on my alpha, which takes care of the monoculture issue for me. :')

Don't forget Novell DHCP/DNS, it comes with NetWare 5. There are more esoteric DNS servers listed here.

All four of the DNS addresses for microsoft.com and other microsoft domains are in the same Class-C range. If routing or connectivity for that one IP subnet is disrupted, those names stop resolving.

This goes against everything recommended in RFC2182.

Yes, this is a common mistake, but one of the first rules you learn when becoming a DNS admin is to have diversity in your name servers. Spread them across multiple hosts, on different networks, in physically separate datacenters.

Apparently Microsoft had to learn this the hard way.

To stop our users from complaining about the long lookup timeout on MICROSOFT,COM, MSN.COM, MSFT.NET and various other sites, I aliased those domains in our name servers to return immediately with 'no A records available'.

It's a shame management will insist that I take out those aliases tomorrow morning.

• djbdns
• other Unix DNS servers

DNSSEC isn't going to be the be-all, end-all for DNS. In addition to any issues with the implementation, we have the issues of any public key infrastructure. Do I trust you? Can I verify you? Should I? Layer on top of this BIND's exemplary record for security and I see nothing but problems. - technik