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comp.protocols.tcp-ip.domains Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) (Part 1 of 2)
From: cdp2582@hertz.njit.edu (Chris Peckham)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip.domains,comp.answers,news.answers,comp.protocols.dns.bind
Subject: comp.protocols.tcp-ip.domains Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) (Part 1 of 2)
Supersedes: <cptd-faq-1-916718634@njit.edu>
Followup-To: comp.protocols.tcp-ip.domains
Organization: NJIT.EDU - New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ, USA
Sender: cdp@chipmunk.iconnet.net
Expires: Thursday, 18 Mar 99 15:18:37 EDT
Message-ID: <cptd-faq-1-918764317@njit.edu>
Reply-To: cdp@intac.com (comp.protocols.tcp-ip.domains FAQ comments)
Keywords: BIND,DOMAIN,DNS
X-Posting-Frequency: posted during the first week of each month
Date: Thu, 11 Feb 1999 20:18:01 GMT
NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 11 Feb 1999 15:18:01 EDT
Posted-By: auto-faq 3.3 beta (Perl 5.004)
Archive-name: internet/tcp-ip/domains-faq/part1
Note that this posting has been split into two parts because of its size.
$Id: cptd-faq.bfnn,v 1.26 1999/02/11 20:01:58 cdp Exp cdp $
A new version of this document appears monthly. If this copy is more
than a month old it may be out of date.
This FAQ is edited and maintained by Chris Peckham, <cdp@intac.com>. The
most recently posted version may be found for anonymous ftp from
rtfm.mit.edu : /pub/usenet/news.answers/internet/tcp-ip/domains-faq
It is also available in HTML from http://www.intac.com/~cdp/cptd-faq/.
If you can contribute any answers for items in the TODO section, please do
so by sending e-mail to <cdp@intac.com> ! If you know of any items that
are not included and you feel that they should be, send the relevant
information to <cdp@intac.com>.
===============================================================================
Index
Section 1. TO DO / UPDATES
Q1.1 Contributions needed
Q1.2 UPDATES / Changes since last posting
Section 2. INTRODUCTION / MISCELLANEOUS
Q2.1 What is this newsgroup ?
Q2.2 More information
Q2.3 What is BIND ?
Q2.4 What is the difference between BIND and DNS ?
Q2.5 Where is the latest version of BIND located ?
Q2.6 How can I find the path taken between two systems/domains ?
Q2.7 How do you find the hostname given the TCP-IP address ?
Q2.8 How do I register a domain ?
Q2.9 How can I change the IP address of our server ?
Q2.10 Issues when changing your domain name
Q2.11 How memory and CPU does DNS use ?
Q2.12 Other things to consider when planning your servers
Q2.13 Reverse domains (IN-ADDR.ARPA) and their delegation
Q2.14 How do I get my address assigned from the NIC ?
Q2.15 Is there a block of private IP addresses I can use?
Q2.16 Does BIND cache negative answers (failed DNS lookups) ?
Q2.17 What does an NS record really do ?
Q2.18 DNS ports
Q2.19 What is the cache file
Q2.20 Obtaining the latest cache file
Q2.21 Selecting a nameserver/root cache
Q2.22 Domain names and legal issues
Q2.23 Iterative and Recursive lookups
Q2.24 Dynamic DNS
Q2.25 What version of bind is running on a server ?
Q2.26 BIND and Y2K
Section 3. UTILITIES
Q3.1 Utilities to administer DNS zone files
Q3.2 DIG - Domain Internet Groper
Q3.3 DNS packet analyzer
Q3.4 host
Q3.5 How can I use DNS information in my program?
Q3.6 A source of information relating to DNS
Section 4. DEFINITIONS
Q4.1 TCP/IP Host Naming Conventions
Q4.2 What are slaves and forwarders ?
Q4.3 When is a server authoritative?
Q4.4 My server does not consider itself authoritative !
Q4.5 NS records don't configure servers as authoritative ?
Q4.6 underscore in host-/domainnames
Q4.7 How do I turn the "_" check off ?
Q4.8 What is lame delegation ?
Q4.9 How can I see if the server is "lame" ?
Q4.10 What does opt-class field in a zone file do?
Q4.11 Top level domains
Q4.12 US Domain
Q4.13 Classes of networks
Q4.14 What is CIDR ?
Q4.15 What is the rule for glue ?
Q4.16 What is a stub record/directive ?
Section 5. CONFIGURATION
Q5.1 Upgrading from 4.9.x to 8.x
Q5.2 Changing a Secondary server to a Primary server ?
Q5.3 Moving a Primary server to another server
Q5.4 How do I subnet a Class B Address ?
Q5.5 Subnetted domain name service
Q5.6 Recommended format/style of DNS files
Q5.7 DNS on a system not connected to the Internet
Q5.8 Multiple Domain configuration
Q5.9 wildcard MX records
Q5.10 How do you identify a wildcard MX record ?
Q5.11 Why are fully qualified domain names recommended ?
Q5.12 Distributing load using named
Q5.13 Round robin IS NOT load balancing
Q5.14 Order of returned records
Q5.15 resolv.conf
Q5.16 How do I delegate authority for sub-domains ?
Q5.17 DNS instead of NIS on a Sun OS 4.1.x system
Q5.18 Patches to add functionality to BIND
Q5.19 How to serve multiple domains from one server
Q5.20 hostname and domain name the same
Q5.21 Restricting zone transfers
Q5.22 DNS in firewalled and private networks
Q5.23 Modifying the Behavior of DNS with ndots
Q5.24 Different DNS answers for same RR
Section 6. PROBLEMS
Q6.1 No address for root server
Q6.2 Error - No Root Nameservers for Class XX
Q6.3 Bind 4.9.x and MX querying?
Q6.4 Do I need to define an A record for localhost ?
Q6.5 MX records, CNAMES and A records for MX targets
Q6.6 Can an NS record point to a CNAME ?
Q6.7 Nameserver forgets own A record
Q6.8 General problems (core dumps !)
Q6.9 malloc and DECstations
Q6.10 Can't resolve names without a "."
Q6.11 Why does swapping kill BIND ?
Q6.12 Resource limits warning in system
Q6.13 ERROR:ns_forw: query...learnt
Q6.14 ERROR:zone has trailing dot
Q6.15 ERROR:Zone declared more then once
Q6.16 ERROR:response from unexpected source
Q6.17 ERROR:record too short from [zone name]
Q6.18 ERROR:sysquery: findns error (3)
Q6.19 ERROR:Err/TO getting serial# for XXX
Q6.20 ERROR:zonename IN NS points to a CNAME
Q6.21 ERROR:Masters for secondary zone [XX] unreachable
Q6.22 ERROR:secondary zone [XX] expired
Q6.23 ERROR:bad response to SOA query from [address]
Q6.24 ERROR:premature EOF, fetching [zone]
Q6.25 ERROR:Zone [XX] SOA serial# rcvd from [Y] is < ours
Q6.26 ERROR:connect(IP/address) for zone [XX] failed
Q6.27 ERROR:sysquery: no addrs found for NS
Q6.28 ERROR:zone [name] rejected due to errors
Section 7. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Q7.1 How is this FAQ generated ?
Q7.2 What formats are available ?
Q7.3 Contributors
===============================================================================
Section 1. TO DO / UPDATES
Q1.1 Contributions needed
Q1.2 UPDATES / Changes since last posting
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 1.1. Contributions needed
Date: Mon Jan 18 22:57:01 EST 1999
* Additional information on the new TLDs
* Expand on Q: How to serve multiple domains from one server
* Q: DNS ports - need to expand/correct some issues
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 1.2. UPDATES / Changes since last posting
Date: Thu Feb 11 14:36:02 EST 1999
* DNS in firewalled and private networks - Updated with comment about hint
file
* host - Updated NT info
* How do I register a domain ? - JP NIC
* BIND and Y2K
===============================================================================
Section 2. INTRODUCTION / MISCELLANEOUS
Q2.1 What is this newsgroup ?
Q2.2 More information
Q2.3 What is BIND ?
Q2.4 What is the difference between BIND and DNS ?
Q2.5 Where is the latest version of BIND located ?
Q2.6 How can I find the path taken between two systems/domains ?
Q2.7 How do you find the hostname given the TCP-IP address ?
Q2.8 How do I register a domain ?
Q2.9 How can I change the IP address of our server ?
Q2.10 Issues when changing your domain name
Q2.11 How memory and CPU does DNS use ?
Q2.12 Other things to consider when planning your servers
Q2.13 Reverse domains (IN-ADDR.ARPA) and their delegation
Q2.14 How do I get my address assigned from the NIC ?
Q2.15 Is there a block of private IP addresses I can use?
Q2.16 Does BIND cache negative answers (failed DNS lookups) ?
Q2.17 What does an NS record really do ?
Q2.18 DNS ports
Q2.19 What is the cache file
Q2.20 Obtaining the latest cache file
Q2.21 Selecting a nameserver/root cache
Q2.22 Domain names and legal issues
Q2.23 Iterative and Recursive lookups
Q2.24 Dynamic DNS
Q2.25 What version of bind is running on a server ?
Q2.26 BIND and Y2K
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 2.1. What is this newsgroup ?
Date: Thu Dec 1 11:08:28 EST 1994
comp.protocols.tcp-ip.domains is the usenet newsgroup for discussion on
issues relating to the Domain Name System (DNS).
This newsgroup is not for issues directly relating to IP routing and
addressing. Issues of that nature should be directed towards
comp.protocols.tcp-ip.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 2.2. More information
Date: Fri Dec 6 00:41:03 EST 1996
You can find more information concerning DNS in the following places:
* The BOG (BIND Operations Guide) - in the BIND distribution
* The FAQ included with BIND 4.9.5 in doc/misc/FAQ
* DNS and BIND by Albitz and Liu (an O'Reilly & Associates Nutshell
handbook)
* A number of RFCs (920, 974, 1032, 1034, 1101, 1123, 1178, 1183, 1348,
1535, 1536, 1537, 1591, 1706, 1712, 1713, 1912, 1918)
* The DNS Resources Directory (DNSRD) http://www.dns.net/dnsrd/
* If you are having troubles relating to sendmail and DNS, you may wish to
refer to the USEnet newsgroup comp.mail.sendmail and/or the FAQ for that
newsgroup which may be found for anonymous ftp at rtfm.mit.edu :
/pub/usenet/news.answers/mail/sendmail-faq
* Information concerning some frequently asked questions relating to the
Internet (i.e., what is the InterNIC, what is an RFC, what is the IETF,
etc) may be found for anonymous ftp from ds.internic.net : /fyi/fyi4.txt
A version may also be obtained with the URL
gopher://ds.internic.net/00/fyi/fyi4.txt.
* Information on performing an initial installation of BIND may be found
using the DNS Resources Directory at
http://www.dns.net/dnsrd/docs/basic.txt
* Three other USEnet newsgroups:
* comp.protocols.dns.bind
* comp.protocols.dns.ops
* comp.protocols.dns.std
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 2.3. What is BIND ?
Date: Tue Sep 10 23:15:58 EDT 1996
From the BOG Introduction -
The Berkeley Internet Name Domain (BIND) implements an Internet name
server for the BSD operating system. The BIND consists of a server (or
``daemon'') and a resolver library. A name server is a network
service that enables clients to name resources or objects and share this
information with other objects in the network. This in effect is a
distributed data base system for objects in a computer network. BIND
is fully integrated into BSD (4.3 and later releases) network programs
for use in storing and retrieving host names and address. The system
administrator can configure the system to use BIND as a replacement to
the older host table lookup of information in the network hosts file
/etc/hosts. The default configuration for BSD uses BIND.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 2.4. What is the difference between BIND and DNS ?
Date: Tue Sep 10 23:15:58 EDT 1996
(text provided by Andras Salamon) DNS is the Domain Name System, a set of
protocols for a distributed database that was originally designed to
replace /etc/hosts files. DNS is most commonly used by applications to
translate domain names of hosts to IP addresses. A client of the DNS is
called a resolver; resolvers are typically located in the application
layer of the networking software of each TCP/IP capable machine. Users
typically do not interact directly with the resolver. Resolvers query the
DNS by directing queries at name servers that contain parts of the
distributed database that is accessed by using the DNS protocols. In
common usage, `the DNS' usually refers just to the data in the database.
BIND (Berkeley Internet Name Domain) is an implementation of DNS, both
server and client. Development of BIND is funded by the Internet Software
Consortium and is coordinated by Paul Vixie. BIND has been ported to
Windows NT and VMS, but is most often found on Unix. BIND source code is
freely available and very complex; most of the development on the DNS
protocols is based on this code; and most Unix vendors ship BIND-derived
DNS implementations. As a result, the BIND name server is the most widely
used name server on the Internet. In common usage, `BIND' usually refers
to the name server that is part of the BIND distribution, and sometimes to
name servers in general (whether BIND-derived or not).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 2.5. Where is the latest version of BIND located ?
Date: Mon Sep 14 22:46:00 EDT 1998
This information may be found at http://www.vix.com/isc/bind/.
Presently, there are two 'production level' versions of BIND. They are
versions 4 and 8.
Version 4 is the last "traditional" BIND -- the one everybody on the
Internet runs, except a few hundred sites running...
Version 8 has been called "BIND-ng" (Next Generation). Many new features
are found in version 8.
BIND-8.1 has the following features:
* DNS Dynamic Updates (RFC 2136)
* DNS Change Notification (RFC 1996)
* Completely new configuration syntax
* Flexible, categorized logging system
* IP-address-based access control for queries, zone transfers, and updates
that may be specified on a zone-by-zone basis
* More efficient zone transfers
* Improved performance for servers with thousands of zones
* The server no longer forks for outbound zone transfers
* Many bug fixes.
Bind version 8.1.2 may be found at the following location:
* Source ftp.isc.org : /isc/bind/src/8.1.2/bind-8.1.2-src.tar.gz
* Documentation ftp.isc.org : /isc/bind/src/8.1.2/bind-8.1.2-doc.tar.gz
* Contributed packages ftp.isc.org :
/isc/bind/src/8.1.2/bind-8.1.2-contrib.tar.gz
At this time, BIND version 4.9.7 may be found for anonymous ftp from
ftp.isc.org : /isc/bind/src/4.9.7/bind-4.9.7-REL.tar.gz
Other sites that officially mirror the BIND distribution are
* bind.fit.qut.edu.au : /pub/bind
* ftp.funet.fi : /pub/unix/tcpip/dns/bind
* ftp.univ-lyon1.fr : /pub/mirrors/unix/bind
* ftp.oleane.net : /pub/mirrors/unix/bind
* ftp.ucr.ac.cr : /pub/Unix/dns/bind
* ftp.luth.se : /pub/unix/dns/bind/beta
You may need GNU zip, Larry Wall's patch program (if there are any patch
files), and a C compiler to get BIND running from the above mentioned
source.
GNU zip is available for anonymous ftp from
prep.ai.mit.edu : /pub/gnu/gzip-1.2.4.tar
patch is available for anonymous ftp from
prep.ai.mit.edu : /pub/gnu/patch-2.1.tar.gz
A version of BIND for Windows NT is available for anonymous ftp from
ftp.isc.org : /isc/bind/contrib/ntbind/ntdns497relbin.zip
and
ftp.isc.org : /isc/bind/contrib/ntbind/ntbind497rel.zip
If you contact access@drcoffsite.com, he will send you information
regarding a Windows NT/WIN95 bind port of 4.9.6 release.
A Freeware version of Bind for NT is available at http://www.software.com.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 2.6. How can I find the path taken between two systems/domains ?
Date: Wed Jan 14 12:07:03 EST 1998
On a Unix system, use traceroute. If it is not available to you, you may
obtain the source source for 'traceroute', compile it and install it on
your system.
One version of this program with additional functionality may be found for
anonymous ftp from
ftp.nikhef.nl : /pub/network/traceroute.tar.Z
Another version may be found for anonymous ftp from
ftp.psc.edu : /pub/net_tools/traceroute.tar
NT/Windows 95 users may use the command TRACERT.EXE, which is installed
with the TCP/IP protocol support. There is a Winsock utility called
WS_PING by John Junod that provides ping, traceroute, and nslookup
functionality.
There are several shareware TCP/IP utilities that provide ping,
traceroute, and DNS lookup functionality for a Macintosh: Mac TCP Watcher
and IP Net>
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