>>>>> "Ambar" == Ambar Roy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>> ...or even better, considering you're running on Linux, use
>> your own computer as a caching nameserver. Most distributions
>> come with a caching-only nameserver already configured, so all
>> you have to do is enable named at boot up (update-rc.d or
>> chkconfig or whatever) and add `nameserver 127.0.0.1' to
>> /etc/resolv.conf.
Ambar> I won't recomend this for most dialup users. A caching
Ambar> nameserver for only a single user typically eats up more bw
Ambar> than using the isp's nameserver. Also many of the bigger
Ambar> sites have a very short expiry time for their www
Ambar> subdomain, so that can take up bw too! One solution for
Well, what you're saying is true, but look at it another way: each
time you hit a web page you typically make 8-10 requests from the
remote HTTP server. If you're not using Stay-Alives (or if you're
doing multiple pages from a single site), a local caching nameserver
can save you tons of bandwidth by returning the IP locally.
Would be interesting to actually map some patterns of usage and see
which actually saves you more bandwidth. Anyone done any studies?
Ambar> this is to configure bind to forward all requests to your
Ambar> isp. That way you will use less bw than if you set up a
Ambar> nameserver to do recursive queries. This works faster too.
Ambar> If you are sharing your net connection, then you should
Ambar> definitely use a caching nameserver at your end. In that
Ambar> case you do end up with some bw saving and much better
Ambar> response times than using isp's nameserver. Even in this
Ambar> case, I have seen that a forwarder typically does a better
Ambar> job. If you use spectranet, then disregard this advice and
Ambar> set up your own nameserver. Or ask it to forward the
Ambar> queries to one of vsnl's nameservers. Spectranet seems to
Ambar> have broken nameservers where sometimes it returns "invalid
Ambar> host name" responses when it can't resolve a domain name!
Ambar> Ambar
I agree, forwarding to the ISP's nameservers is the optimal solution.
The only issue I have with that is the technical competency of the
iSP. Maybe I'm just a control freak, but I really don't trust any of
the ISP's in India to Do The Right Thing, whether the Right Thing be
e-mail, billing or DNS. I'm sure that's a bit of a slur on many of
the competent ones, but I haven't found any so far :)
So... if you're into control and generally paranoid (like I am), use a
local caching, non-forwarding nameserver. On the other hand, if
you're not completely insane, use a caching nameserver, forwarding to
your ISP's DNS. If you're too laid-back to bother, use any d*mn
nameserver on the 'net that accepts your queries with no local
nameserver at all.
Regards,
-- Raju
--
Raj Mathur [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://kandalaya.org/
It is the mind that moves
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