Lead Scientist Responds to Questions on Root Server Queries

cidtoday writes "A CircleID interview with the lead scientist whose study recently revealed that 98% of a main root server queries are unnecessary, reveals that spam has little to do with the issue. In fact, he provides two reasons why anti-spam tools cause more unnecessary queries to the root servers than spam emails. Many other questions previously raised by Slashdot readers on the study are also answered."

Comments

Eh??!

[FyRE666]

reveals that spam has little to do with the issue. In fact, he provides two reasons why anti-spam tools cause more unnecessary queries to the root servers than spam emails...

So Spam has little to do with extra traffic, but the wealth of tools fighting against spam are adding to the load, right? But then since spam is the reason anti-spam tools exist, it's fair to say spam is the root cause of the problem!

That's a worse idea

[billstewart]

Yes, definitely, set your DHCP servers to tell clients about your company's DNS servers, and do a good job of maintaining your DNS serves so they work well. But sometimes people want to ask other servers what's going on, especially if they're trying to track down detailed authoritative information about a name from the real name servers for that name - or it they're spam hunting.

Anti-spam causing problems?

[blowdart]

Many anti-spam tools verify "From" addresses and perhaps other fields. If the From address has an invalid hostname, such as "spam.my.domain," the root servers will see more requests, because the top level domain does not exist.

DNS lookups on the sender address was common before there was a major spam problem. It makes sense, why would you want to take email from somewhere you cannot reply to? So I don't think you can blame anti-spam tools for this.

Anti-spam tools also make various checks on the IP address of the connecting client -- for example, the various "realtime blackhole lists" and basic in-addr.arpa checks.

in-addr.arpa checks has been a standard practice in networking software, not just email, since it was available. Some FTP servers do it, some web servers do it, your web log analyzer does it, IRC does it. You can't put that one onto anti-spam tools either.

The use of dnsBL lists will, of course, create extra load, when you look up the name servers for the list(s) you are using. But in all likelihood the NS and A records are cached at your local server. You're not hitting the root server with every lookup.

This guy seems full of bull. Note that he is not a LEAD scientist for the root servers, he's a lead scientist for the company that produced the report.