[ale] DNS problems

[tony mancill]

On Fri, 3 May 1996, Tucker Balch wrote:

> > 	If you take a look at Olaf Kirch's "Linux Network Administrator's
> > 	Guide" page 97 of the O'Reilly edition he specifically says it is
> > 	a good idea to setup a caching only name server on your end of a
> > 	serial line Internet connection so most name server queries only
> > 	have to go over the serial line once per dialup session.
> 
> The O'Reilly books are great, but they aren't the word of God either.
> Why go through the hassle?  If you follow that advice, you've got to 
> setup and maintain a nameserver when you could just point to one in 
> etc/resolv.conf .  It doesn't take long for the queries (I've 
> certainly never noticed any slowdown).

Hate to chime in, but I agree entirely.  (And I'm running @ 14.4!)  You 
have to think about the amount of traffic generated by DNS queries as 
compared to the volume of the remaining traffic.

Also, the DNS query usually is answered by a nameserver at your ISP, so 
it's only 1 hop.  The real issue is how loaded is that nameserver. 

tony

tmancill at atlanta.com		|  "...an ounce of perception,
	Veni, Vidi, Dolavi...	|      a pound of obscure..."  (Neil Peart)