[kwlug-disc] DNS getting hinky?

[Cedric Puddy]

The 142.77.1.1 server stopped being reliable years ago, at least to my  
experience.  I thought they had actually turned recursion off on it?   
Yes, it looks like they have... I just checked.  See below for my dig  
results - not the "recursion requested by not available" line, and  
lack of returned A record for www.google.com.

If you are looking for an easy to remember replacement, I recommend  
this AT&T box:

	4.2.2.2

I have also had good experience with OpenDNS - 208.67.220.220 /  
208.67.222.222 (and being a public resolver is their mission in  
life).  The only downside with them is that they, by default, resolve  
failed queries to one of their servers, which is a deal breaker for  
some folks (you can turn that off, but you have to have a static IP,  
and create a profile for that IP on their site which asks for it to be  
turned off).

On the plus side, if you need an ultra-light weight pr0n filter for a  
site, then you can create a profile with them, and ask them not to  
resolve such name requests from your IP (you have to trust the quality  
of their database, again -- it's free and basic, so if you want to  
quibble, then you need something more sophisticated/different anyway).

-Cedric

---------------------
$ dig www.google.com @142.77.1.1 A

; <<>> DiG 9.6.0-APPLE-P2 <<>> www.google.com @142.77.1.1 A
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 38649
;; flags: qr rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 4, ADDITIONAL: 4
;; WARNING: recursion requested but not available

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;www.google.com.			IN	A

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
GOOGLE.com.		7812	IN	NS	ns4.GOOGLE.com.
GOOGLE.com.		7812	IN	NS	ns1.GOOGLE.com.
GOOGLE.com.		7812	IN	NS	ns2.GOOGLE.com.
GOOGLE.com.		7812	IN	NS	ns3.GOOGLE.com.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
ns4.GOOGLE.com.		142519	IN	A	216.239.38.10
ns1.GOOGLE.com.		142234	IN	A	216.239.32.10
ns2.GOOGLE.com.		150434	IN	A	216.239.34.10
ns3.GOOGLE.com.		150434	IN	A	216.239.36.10

;; Query time: 43 msec
;; SERVER: 142.77.1.1#53(142.77.1.1)
;; WHEN: Thu Oct 22 20:52:48 2009
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 178

------------------------


On 2009-10-22, at 7:52 PM, Rashkae wrote:

> unsolicited wrote:
>> Anyone else experiencing intermittent DNS wonkiness?
>>
>> When one moment wikipedia resolves, and a minute later not, it's
>> irritating. Same on google. To pick a couple.
>>
>> I even went and changed my DNS on one machine to uunet only
>> (142.77.1.1), to no change.
>>
>> [At one point, I had the sense that people felt uunet had gone  
>> downhill
>> / gotten slower, but that feeling reversed itself last year some  
>> time.
>> It seems. Am I remembering correctly?]
>>
>> There has been list discussions in the past regarding their  
>> preferred /
>> favourite DNS servers, but I didn't have a real solid sense of a  
>> consensus.
>>
>
> Generally speaking, I've rarely been impressed with ISP DNS.  If you
> have an always on High speed connection, do it yourself is the only  
> way
> to go.
>
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    Cedric Puddy, IS Director            cedric at thinkers.org
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