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-Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip.domains,comp.answers,news.answers
-Path: vixie!news1.digital.com!su-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!cam-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.mathworks.com!news.kei.com!uhog.mit.edu!rutgers!njitgw.njit.edu!hertz.njit.edu!cdp2582
-From: cdp2582@hertz.njit.edu (Chris Peckham)
-Subject: comp.protocols.tcp-ip.domains Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) (Part 1 of 2)
-Message-ID: <cptd-faq-1-849940949@njit.edu>
-Followup-To: comp.protocols.tcp-ip.domains
-Originator: cdp2582@hertz.njit.edu
-Keywords: BIND,DOMAIN,DNS
-Sender: news@njit.edu
-Supersedes: <cptd-faq-1-847336183@njit.edu>
-Nntp-Posting-Host: hertz.njit.edu
-X-Posting-Frequency: posted during the first week of each month
-Reply-To: domain-faq@njit.edu (comp.protocols.tcp-ip.domains FAQ comments)
-Organization: NJIT.EDU - New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ, USA
-Date: Sat, 7 Dec 1996 06:42:36 GMT
-Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.EDU
-Expires: Sat 11 Jan 97 02:42:29 EDT
-Lines: 1582
-Xref: vixie comp.protocols.tcp-ip.domains:12904 comp.answers:22440 news.answers:85682
-
-Posted-By: auto-faq 3.1.1.2
-Archive-name: internet/tcp-ip/domains-faq/part1
-Revision: 1.14 1996/12/07 06:42:05
-
-
-Note that this posting has been split into two parts because of its size.
-
-$Id: FAQ.1of2,v 8.4 1996/12/18 04:22:33 vixie Exp $
-
-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-than a month old it may be out of date.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@pfmc.net>. 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.users.pfmc.net/~cdp/cptd-faq/.
-
-If you can contribute any answers for items in the TODO section, please do
-so by sending e-mail to <domain-faq@pfmc.net> ! If you know of any items
-that are not included and you feel that they should be, send the
-relevant information to <domain-faq@pfmc.net>.
-
-===============================================================================
-
-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 Proper way to get NS and reverse IP records into DNS
- 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 InterNIC and domain names
-
- Section 3. UTILITIES
- Q3.1 Utilities to administer DNS zone files
- Q3.2 DIG - Domain Internet Groper
- Q3.3 DNS packet analyser
- 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 What is lame delegation ?
- Q4.8 How can I see if the server is "lame" ?
- Q4.9 What does opt-class field in a zone file do?
- Q4.10 Top level domains
- Q4.11 Classes of networks
- Q4.12 What is CIDR ?
- Q4.13 What is the rule for glue ?
-
- Section 5. CONFIGURATION
- Q5.1 Changing a Secondary server to a Primary server ?
- Q5.2 Moving a Primary server to another server
- Q5.3 How do I subnet a Class B Address ?
- Q5.4 Subnetted domain name service
- Q5.5 Recommended format/style of DNS files
- Q5.6 DNS on a system not connected to the Internet
- Q5.7 Multiple Domain configuration
- Q5.8 wildcard MX records
- Q5.9 How do you identify a wildcard MX record ?
- Q5.10 Why are fully qualified domain names recommended ?
- Q5.11 Distributing load using named
- Q5.12 Order of returned records
- Q5.13 resolv.conf
- Q5.14 How do I delegate authority for sub-domains ?
- Q5.15 DNS instead of NIS on a Sun OS 4.1.x system
- Q5.16 Patches to add functionality to BIND
- Q5.17 How to serve multiple domains from one server
-
- 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 Err/TO errors being reported
- Q6.12 Why does swapping kill BIND ?
-
- 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: Fri Dec 6 00:40:00 EST 1996
-
-* Expand the slave/forward section
-
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-Question 1.2. UPDATES / Changes since last posting
-
-Date: Fri Dec 6 00:40:00 EST 1996
-
-* The FAQ is now maintained in BFNN (Bizzare format with No Name). This
- allows me to create ASCII, HTML, and GNU info (postscript coming soon)
- from one source file.
-* References to 4.9.4 changed to 4.9.5.
-* memory/CPU usage question - removed uunet map reference. Not there...
-* Minor edits of information and questions for new format.
-* How do I delegate authority for sub-domains ? - edited answer
-
-===============================================================================
-
-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 Proper way to get NS and reverse IP records into DNS
- 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 InterNIC and domain names
-
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-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 ?
-
-Fri Dec 6 00:23:19 EST 1996
-
-This information may be found at http://www.vix.com/isc/bind.html
-
-At this time, BIND version of 4.9.5 may be found for anonymous ftp from
-
-ftp.vix.com : /pub/bind/release/4.9.5/bind-4.9.5-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.vix.com : /pub/bind/release/4.9.5/contrib/ntdns495relbin.zip
-
-and
-
-ftp.vix.com : /pub/bind/release/4.9.5/contrib/ntbind495rel.zip
-
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-Question 2.6. How can I find the path taken between two systems/domains ?
-
-Date: Fri Dec 6 00:10:31 EST 1996
-
-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
-
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-Question 2.7. How do you find the hostname given the TCP-IP address ?
-
-Date: Thu Dec 1 09:55:24 EST 1994
-
-For an address a.b.c.d you can always do:
-
- % nslookup
- > set q=ptr
- > d.c.b.a.in-addr.arpa.
-
-Most newer version of nslookup (since 4.8.3) will recognize an address, so
-you can just say:
-
- % nslookup a.b.c.d
-
-DiG will work like this also:
-
- % dig -x a.b.c.d
-
-host from the contrib/host from the bind distribution may also be used.
-
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-Question 2.8. How do I register a domain ?
-
-Date: Wed Sep 4 23:59:42 EDT 1996
-
-You can talk to your Internet Service Provider (ISP). They can submit the
-registration for you. If you are not going to be directly connected, they
-should be able to offer MX records for your domain for mail delivery (so
-that mail sent to the new domain will be sent to your "standard" account).
-In the case where the registration is done by the organization itself, it
-still makes the whole process much easier if the ISP is approached for
-secondary servers _before_ the InterNIC is approached for registration.
-
-For information about making the registration yourself, look to the
-InterNIC (or other similar organization).
-
-* anonymout ftp from internic.net : /templates
-* gopher://rs.internic.net/
-* http://rs.internic.net/reg/reg-forms.html
-* http://www.ripe.net/
-
-You will need at least two domain name servers when you register your
-domain. Many ISP's are willing to provide primary and/or secondary name
-service for their customers.
-
-Please note that the InterNIC is now charging a fee for domain names in
-the "COM", "ORG", and "NET". More information may be found from the
-Internic at
-
-http://rs.internic.net/domain-info/fee-policy.html
-
-Many times, registration of a domain name can be initiated by sending
-e-mail to the zone contact. You can obtain the contact in the SOA record
-for the country, or in a whois server:
-
- $ nslookup -type=SOA fr.
- origin = ns1.nic.fr
- mail addr = nic.nic.fr
- ...
-
-The mail address to contact in this case is 'nic@nic.fr' (you must
-substitute an '@' for the first dot in the mail addr field).
-
-An alternate method to obtain the e-mail address of the national NIC is
-the 'whois' server at InterNIC.
-
-You may be requested to make your request to another email address or
-using a certain information template/application.
-
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-Question 2.9. How can I change the IP address of our server ?
-
-Date: Sun May 5 22:46:28 EDT 1996
-
-(From Mark Andrews) Before the move.
-
-* Ensure you are running a modern nameserver. BIND 4.9.3-REL + Patch1 is a
- good choice.
-* Inform all your secondaries that you are going to change. Have them
- install both the current and new addresses in their named.boot's.
-* Drop the ttl of the A's associated with the nameserver to something
- small (5 min is usually good).
-* Drop the refesh and retry times of the zone containing the forward
- records for the server.
-* Configure the new reverse zone before the move and make sure it is
- operational.
-* On the day of the move add the new A record(s) for the server. Don't
- forget to have these added to parent domains. You will look like you are
- multihomed with one interface dead.
-
-Move the machine after gracefully terminating any other services it is
-offering. Then,
-
-* Fixup the A's, ttl, refresh and retry counters. (If you are running an
- all server EDIT out all references to the old addresses in the cache
- files).
-* Inform all the secondaries the move is complete.
-* Inform the parents of all zones you are primary of the new NS/A pairs
- for the relevent zones.
-* Inform all the administators of zones you are secondaring that the
- machine has moved.
-* For good measure update the serial no for all zones you are primary for.
- This will flush out old A's.
-
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-Question 2.10. Issues when changing your domain name
-
-Date: Sun Nov 27 23:32:41 EST 1994
-
-If you are changing your domain name from abc.foobar.com to foobar.net,
-the forward zones are easy and there are a number of ways to do it. One
-way is the following:
-
-Have a single db file for the 2 domains, and have a single machine be the
-primary server for both abc.foobar.com and foobar.net.
-
-To resolve the host foo in both domains, use a single zone file which
-merely uses this for the host:
-
-foo IN A 1.2.3.4
-
-Use a "@" wherever the domain would be used ie for the SOA:
-
-@ IN SOA (...
-
-Then use this pair of lines in your named.boot:
-
-primary abc.foobar.com db.foobar
-primary foobar.net db.foobar
-
-The reverse zones should either contain PTRs to both names, or to
-whichever name you believe to be canonical currently.
-
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-Question 2.11. How memory and CPU does DNS use ?
-
-Date: Fri Dec 6 01:07:56 EST 1996
-
-It can use quite a bit ! The main thing that BIND needs is memory. It
-uses very little CPU or network bandwidth. The main considerations to
-keep in mind when planning are:
-
-* How many zones do you have and how large are they ?
-* How many clients do you expect to serve and how active are they ?
-
-As an example, here is a snapshot of memory usage from CSIRO Division of
-Mathematics and Statistics, Australia
-
- Named takes several days to stabalize its memory usage.
-
- Our main server stabalises at ~10Mb. It takes about 3 days to
- reach this size from 6 M at startup. This is under Sun OS 4.1.3U1.
-
-As another example, here is the configuration of ns.uu.net (from late
-1994):
-
- ns.uu.net only does nameservice. It is running a version of BIND
- 4.9.3 on a Sun Classic with 96 MB of RAM, 220 MB of swap (remember
- that Sun OS will reserve swap for each fork, even if it is not needed)
- running Sun OS 4.1.3_U1.
-
- Joseph Malcolm, of Alternet, states that named generally hovers at
- 5-10% of the CPU, except after a reload, when it eats it all.
-
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-Question 2.12. Other things to consider when planning your servers
-
-Date: Mon Jan 2 14:24:51 EST 1995
-
-When making the plans to set up your servers, you may want to also
-consider the following issues:
-
- A) Server O/S limitations/capacities (which tend to be widely
- divergent from vendor to vendor)
- B) Client resolver behavior (even more widely divergent)
- C) Expected query response time
- D) Redundancy
- E) Desired speed of change propagation
- F) Network bandwidth availability
- G) Number of zones/subdomain-levels desired
- H) Richness of data stored (redundant MX records? HINFO records?)
- I) Ease of administration desired
- J) Network topology (impacts reverse-zone volume)
-
- Assuming a best-possible case for the factors above, particularly (A), (B),
- (C), (F), (G) & (H), it would be possible to run a 1000-node domain
- using a single lowly 25 or 40 MHz 386 PC with a fairly modest amount of RAM
- by today's standards, e.g. 4 or 8 Meg. However, this configuration would
- be slow, unreliable, and would provide no functionality beyond your basic
- address-to-name and name-to-address mappings.
-
- Beyond that baseline case, depending on what factors listed above,
- you may want look at other strategies, such splitting up the DNS
- traffic among several machines strategically located, possibly larger ones,
- and/or subdividing your domain itself. There are many options, tradeoffs,
- and DNS architectural paradigms from which to choose.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-Question 2.13. Proper way to get NS and reverse IP records into DNS
-
-Date: Mon Jan 2 13:03:53 EST 1995
-
-Reverse domain registration is separate from forward domain registration.
-Blocks of network addresses have been delegated by the InterNIC. Check if
-your network a.b.c.0 is in such a block by using nslookup:
-
- nslookup -type=soa c.b.a.in-addr.arpa.
- nslookup -type=soa b.a.in-addr.arpa.
- nslookup -type=soa a.in-addr.arpa.
-
-One of the above should give you the information you are looking for (the
-others will return with an error something like `*** No start of authority
-(SOA) records available for ...') This will give you the email address of
-the person to whom you should address your change request.
-
-If none of these works, your network probably has not been delegated by
-the InterNIC and you need to contact them directly.
-
-CIDR has meant that the registration is delegated, but registration of
-in-addr.arpa has always been separate from forward zones - and for good
-reason - in that the forward and reverse zones may have different
-policies, contents etc, may be served by a different set of nameservers,
-and exist at different times (usually only at point of creation). There
-isn't a one-to-one mapping between the two, so merging the registration
-would probably cause more problems than people forgetting/not-knowing that
-they had to register in-addr.arpa zones separately. For example, there
-are organizations that have hundreds of networks and two or more domains,
-with a sprinkling of machines from each network in each of the domains.
-
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-Question 2.14. How do I get my address assigned from the NIC ?
-
-Date: Fri Dec 6 01:11:34 EST 1996
-
-You should probably ask your Internet provider to give you an address.
-These days, addresses are being distributed through the providers, so that
-they can assign adjacent blocks of addresses to sites that go through the
-same provider, to permit more efficient routing on the backbones.
-
-Unless you have thousands of hosts, you probably won't be able to get a
-class B these days. Instead, you can get a series of class C networks.
-Large requests will be queried, so be ready to provide a network plan if
-you ask for more than 16 class C networks.
-
-If you can't do this through your Internet provider, you can look for a
-subnet registration form on rs.internic.net. See the answer in this FAQ
-to the question "How do I register a domain" for a URL to these forms.
-
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-Question 2.15. Is there a block of private IP addresses I can use?
-
-Date: Sun May 5 23:02:49 EDT 1996
-
-Yes there is. Please refer to RFC 1918:
-
- 1918 Address Allocation for Private Internets. Y. Rekhter, B.
- Moskowitz, D. Karrenberg, G. de Groot, & E. Lear. February 1996.
- (Format: TXT=22270 bytes)
-
-RFC 1918 documents the allocation of the following addresses for use by
-``private internets'':
-
- 10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255
- 172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255
- 192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255
-
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-Question 2.16. Does BIND cache negative answers (failed DNS lookups) ?
-
-Date: Mon Jan 2 13:55:50 EST 1995
-
-Yes, BIND 4.9.3 and more recent versions will cache negative answers.
-
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-Question 2.17. What does an NS record really do ?
-
-Date: Wed Sep 4 22:52:18 EDT 1996
-
-The NS records in your zone data file pointing to the zone's name servers
-(as opposed to the servers of delegated subdomains) don't do much.
-They're essentially unused, though they are returned in the authority
-section of reply packets from your name servers.
-
-However, the NS records in the zone file of the parent domain are used to
-find the right servers to query for the zone in question. These records
-are more important than the records in the zone itself.
-
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-Question 2.18. DNS ports
-
-Date: Fri Feb 10 15:40:10 EST 1995
-
-The following table shows what TCP/UDP ports DNS uses to send and receive
-queries:
-
- Prot Src Dst Use
- udp 53 53 Queries between servers (eg, recursive queries)
- Replies to above
- tcp 53 53 Queries with long replies between servers, zone
- transfers Replies to above
- udp >1023 53 Client queries (sendmail, nslookup, etc ...)
- udp 53 >1023 Replies to above
- tcp >1023 53 Client queries with long replies
- tcp 53 >1023 Replies to above
-
- Note: >1023 is for non-priv ports on Un*x clients. On other client
- types, the limit may be more or less.
-
-Another point to keep in mind when designing filters for DNS is that a DNS
-server uses port 53 both as the source and destination for it's queries.
-So, a client queries an initial server from an unreserved port number to
-UDP port 53. If the server needs to query another server to get the
-required info, it sends a UDP query to that server with both source and
-destination ports set to 53. The response is then sent with the same
-src=53 dest=53 to the first server which then responds to the original
-client from port 53 to the original source port number.
-
-The point of all this is that putting in filters to only allow UDP between
-a high port and port 53 will not work correctly, you must also allow the
-port 53 to port 53 UDP to get through.
-
-Also, ALL versions of BIND use TCP for queries in some cases. The
-original query is tried using UDP. If the response is longer than the
-allocated buffer, the resolver will retry the query using a TCP
-connection. If you block access to TCP port 53 as suggested above, you
-may find that some things don't work.
-
-Newer version of BIND allow you to configure a list of IP addresses from
-which to allow zone transfers. This mechanism can be used to prevent
-people from outside downloading your entire namespace.
-
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-Question 2.19. What is the cache file
-
-Date: Fri Dec 6 01:15:22 EST 1996
-
-From the "Name Server Operations Guide"
-
- 6.3. Cache Initialization
-
- 6.3.1. root.cache
-
- The name server needs to know the servers that
- are the authoritative name servers for the root
- domain of the network. To do this we have to prime
- the name server's cache with the addresses of these
- higher authorities. The location of this file is
- specified in the boot file. ...
-
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-Question 2.20. Obtaining the latest cache file
-
-Date: Fri Dec 6 01:15:22 EST 1996
-
-If you have a version of dig running, you may obtain the information with
-the command
-
- dig @a.root-servers.net. . ns
-
-A perl script to handle some possible problems when using this method
-from behind a firewall and that can also be used to periodically obtain
-the latest cache file was posted to comp.protocols.tcp-ip.domains during
-early October, 1996. It was posted with the subject "Keeping db.cache
-current". It is available at
-http://www.users.pfmc.net/~cdp/cptd-faq/current_db_cache.txt.
-
-The latest cache file may also be obtained from the InterNIC via ftp or
-gopher:
-
- ; This file is made available by InterNIC registration services
- ; under anonymous FTP as
- ; file /domain/named.root
- ; on server FTP.RS.INTERNIC.NET
- ; -OR- under Gopher at RS.INTERNIC.NET
- ; under menu InterNIC Registration Services (NSI)
- ; submenu InterNIC Registration Archives
- ; file named.root
-
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-Question 2.21. Selecting a nameserver/root cache
-
-Date: Mon Aug 5 22:54:11 EDT 1996
-
-Exactly how is the a root server selected from the root cache? Does the
-resolver attempt to pick the closest host or is it random or is it via
-sortlist-type workings? If the root server selected is not available (for
-whatever reason), will the the query fail instead of attempting another
-root server in the list ?
-
-Every recursive BIND name server (that is, one which is willing to go out
-and find something for you if you ask it something it doesn't know) will
-remember the measured round trip time to each server it sends queries to.
-If it has a choice of several servers for some domain (like "." for
-example) it will use the one whose measured RTT is lowest.
-
-Since the measured RTT of all NS RRs starts at zero (0), every one gets
-tried one time. Once all have responded, all RTT's will be nonzero, and
-the "fastest server" will get all queries henceforth, until it slows down
-for some reason.
-
-To promote dispersion and good recordkeeping, BIND will penalize the RTT
-by a little bit each time a server is reused, and it will penalize the RTT
-a _lot_ if it ever has to retransmit a query. For a server to stay "#1",
-it has to keep on answering quickly and consistently.
-
-Note that this is something BIND does that the DNS Specification does not
-mention at all. So other servers, those not based on BIND, might behave
-very differently.
-
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-Question 2.22. InterNIC and domain names
-
-Date: Sun Jun 2 11:23:49 EDT 1996
-
-The current InterNIC policy on what to do if someone wants to use a domain
-name that is already in use may be found at
-
-rs.internic.net : /policy/internic/internic-domain-4.txt
-
-or
-
-http://rs.internic.net/domain-info/internic-domain-4.html.
-
-The following information was submitted by Carl Oppedahl
-<oppedahl@patents.com> :
-
-If the jealous party happens to have a trademark registration, it is quite
-likely that the domain name owner will lose the domain name, even if they
-aren't infringing the trademark. This presents a substantial risk of loss
-of a domain name on only 30 days' notice. Anyone who is the manager of an
-Internet-connected site should be aware of this risk and should plan for
-it.
-
-See "How do I protect myself from loss of my domain name?" at
-http://www.patents.com/weblaw.sht#domloss.
-
-For an example of an ISP's battle to keep its domain name, see
-http://www.patents.com/nsi.sht.
-
-A compendium of information on the subject may be found at
-http://www.law.georgetown.edu/lc/internic/domain1.html.
-
-===============================================================================
-
-Section 3. UTILITIES
-
- Q3.1 Utilities to administer DNS zone files
- Q3.2 DIG - Domain Internet Groper
- Q3.3 DNS packet analyser
- Q3.4 host
- Q3.5 How can I use DNS information in my program?
- Q3.6 A source of information relating to DNS
-
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-Question 3.1. Utilities to administer DNS zone files
-
-Date: Wed Sep 4 22:53:53 EDT 1996
-
-There are a few utilities available to ease the administration of zone
-files in the DNS.
-
-Two common ones are h2n and makezones. Both are perl scripts. h2n is
-used to convert host tables into zone data files. It is available for
-anonymous ftp from
-
-ftp.uu.net : /published/oreilly/nutshell/dnsbind/dns.tar.Z
-
-makezones works from a single file that looks like a forward zone file,
-with some additional syntax for special cases. It is included in the
-current BIND distribution. The newest version is always available for
-anonymous ftp from
-
-ftp.cus.cam.ac.uk : /pub/software/programs/DNS/makezones
-
-More information may be found using the DNS Resources Directory
-
-http://www.dns.net/dnsrd/.
-
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-Question 3.2. DIG - Domain Internet Groper
-
-Date: Thu Dec 1 11:09:11 EST 1994
-
-The latest and greatest, official, accept-no-substitutes version of the
-Domain Internet Groper (DiG) is the one that comes with BIND. Get the
-latest kit.
-
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-Question 3.3. DNS packet analyser
-
-Date: Wed Sep 4 23:43:57 EDT 1996
-
-There is a free ethernet analyser called Ethload available for PC's
-running DOS. The latest filename is ETHLD104.ZIP. It understands lots of
-protocols including TCP/UDP. It'll look inside there and display
-DNS/BOOTP/ICMP packets etc. (Ed. note: something nice for someone to add
-to tcpdump ;^) ). Depending on the ethernet controller it's given it'll
-perform slightly differently. It handles NDIS/Novell/Packet drivers. It
-works best with Novell's promiscuous mode drivers. A SimTel mirror site
-should have the program available for anonymous ftp. One is
-
-ftp.coast.net : /SimTel/msdos/lan/ethld104.zip
-
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-Question 3.4. host
-
-Date: Sun Dec 4 21:15:38 EST 1994
-
-A section from the host man page:
-
- host looks for information about Internet hosts and domain
- names. It gets this information from a set of intercon-
- nected servers that are spread across the world. The infor-
- mation is stored in the form of "resource records" belonging
- to hierarchically organized "zones".
-
- By default, the program simply converts between host names
- and Internet addresses. However, with the -t, -a and -v
- options, it can be used to find all of the information about
- domain names that is maintained by the domain nameserver
- system. The information printed consists of various fields
- of the associated resource records that were retrieved.
-
- The arguments can be either host names (domain names) or
- numeric Internet addresses.
-
-'host' is compatible with both BIND 4.9 and BIND 4.8
-
-'host' may be found in contrib/host in the BIND distribution. The latest
-version always available for anonymous ftp from
-
-ftp.nikhef.nl : /pub/network/host.tar.Z
-
-It may also be found for anonymous ftp from
-
-ftp.uu.net : /networking/ip/dns/host.tar.Z
-
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-Question 3.5. How can I use DNS information in my program?
-
-Date: Fri Feb 10 15:25:11 EST 1995
-
-It depends on precisely what you want to do:
-
-* Consider whether you need to write a program at all. It may well be
- easier to write a shell program (e.g. using awk or perl) to parse the
- output of dig, host or nslookup.
-* If all you need is names and addresses, there will probably be system
- routines 'gethostbyname' and 'gethostbyaddr' to provide this
- information.
-* If you need more details, then there are system routines (res_query and
- res_search) to assist with making and sending DNS queries. However,
- these do not include a routine to parse the resulting answer (although
- routines to assist in this task are provided). There is a separate
- library available that will take a DNS response and unpick it into its
- constituent parts, returning a C structure that can be used by the
- program. The source for this library is available for anonymous ftp at
-
- hpux.csc.liv.ac.uk : /hpux/Networking/Admin/resparse-1.2
-
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-Question 3.6. A source of information relating to DNS
-
-Date: Tue Nov 5 23:42:21 EST 1996
-
-You may find utilities and tools to help you manage your zone files
-(including WWW front-ends) in the "tools" section of the DNS resources
-directory:
-
-http://www.dns.net/dnsrd/tools.html
-
-There are also a number of IP management tools available. Data
-Communications had an article on the subject in Sept/Oct of 1996. The
-tools mentioned in the article and a few others may be found at the
-following sites:
-
-* IP Address management, http://www.accugraph.com
-* IP-Track, http://www.on.com
-* NetID, http://www.isotro.com
-* QIP, http://www.quadritek.com
-* UName-It, http://www.esm.com
-
-===============================================================================
-
-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 What is lame delegation ?
- Q4.8 How can I see if the server is "lame" ?
- Q4.9 What does opt-class field in a zone file do?
- Q4.10 Top level domains
- Q4.11 Classes of networks
- Q4.12 What is CIDR ?
- Q4.13 What is the rule for glue ?
-
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-Question 4.1. TCP/IP Host Naming Conventions
-
-Date: Mon Aug 5 22:49:46 EDT 1996
-
-One guide that may be used when naming hosts is RFC 1178, "Choosing a Name
-for Your Computer", which is available via anonymous FTP from
-
-ftp.internic.net : /rfc/rfc1178.txt
-
-RFCs (Request For Comments) are specifications and guidelines for how many
-aspects of TCP/IP and the Internet (should) work. Most RFCs are fairly
-technical documents, and some have semantics that are hotly contested in
-the newsgroups. But a few, like RFC 1178, are actually good to read for
-someone who's just starting along a TCP/IP path.
-
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-Question 4.2. What are slaves and forwarders ?
-
-Date: Thu Dec 1 10:32:43 EST 1994
-
-"forwarders" is a list of NS records that are _prepended_ to a list of NS
-records to query if the data is not available locally. This allows a rich
-cache of records to be built up at a centralized location. This is good
-for sites that have sporadic or very slow connections to the Internet.
-(demand dial-up, for example) It's also just a good idea for very large
-distributed sites to increase the chance that you don't have to go off to
-the Internet to get an IP address. (sometimes for addresses across the
-street!)
-
-"slave" modifies this to say to replace the list of NS records with the
-forwarders entry, instead of prepending to it. This is for firewalled
-environments, where the nameserver can't directly get out to the Internet
-at all.
-
-"slave" is meaningless (and invalid, in late-model BINDs) without
-"forwarders". "forwarders" is an entry in named.boot, and therefore
-applies only to the nameserver (not to resolvers).
-
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-Question 4.3. When is a server authoritative?
-
-Date: Mon Jan 2 13:15:13 EST 1995
-
-In the case of BIND:
-
-* The server contains current data in files for the zone in question (Data
- must be current for secondaries, as defined in the SOA)
-* The server is told that it is authoritative for the zone, by a 'primary'
- or 'secondary' keyword in /etc/named.boot.
-* The server does an error-free load of the zone.
-
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-Question 4.4. My server does not consider itself authoritative !
-
-Date: Mon Jan 2 13:15:13 EST 1995
-
-The question was:
-
- What if I have set up a DNS where there is an SOA record for
- the domain, but the server still does not consider itself
- authoritative. (when using nslookup and set server=the correct machine.)
- It seems that something is not matching up somewhere. I suspect
- that this is because the service provider has not given us control
- over the IP numbers in our own domain, and so while the machine listed
- has an A record for an address, there is no corresponding PTR record.
-With the answer:
-
- That's possible too, but is unrelated to the first question.
- You need to be delegated a zone before outside people will start
- talking to your server. However, a server can still be authoritative
- for a zone even though it hasn't been delegated authority (it's just
- that only the people who use that as their server will see the data).
-
- A server may consider itself non-authoritative even though it's a
- primary if there is a syntax error in the zone (see the list in the
- previous question).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-Question 4.5. NS records don't configure servers as authoritative ?
-
-Date: Fri Dec 6 16:13:34 EST 1996
-
-Nope, delegation is a separate issue from authoritativeness. You can
-still be authoritative, but not delegated. (you can also be delegated,
-but not authoritative -- that's a "lame delegation")
-
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-Question 4.6. underscore in host-/domainnames
-
-Date: Mon Aug 5 22:39:02 EDT 1996
-
-The question is "Are underscores are allowed in host- or domainnames" ?
- RFC 1033 allows them.
- RFC 1035 doesn't.
- RFC 1123 doesn't.
- dnswalk complains about them.
-
-
-Which RFC is the final authority these days?
-
-Actually RFC 1035 deals with names of machines or names of mail domains.
-i.e "_" is not permitted in a hostname or on the RHS of the "@" in
-local@domain.
-
-Underscore is permitted where ever the domain is NOT one of these types
-of addresses.
-
-In general the DNS mostly contains hostnames and mail domainnames. This
-will change as new resource record types for authenticating DNS queries
-start to appear.
-
-The latest version of 'host' checks for illegal characters in A/MX record
-names and the NS/MX target names.
-
-After saying all of that, remember that RFC 1123 is a Required Internet
-Standard (per RFC 1720), and RFC 1033 isn't. Even RFC 1035 isn't a
-required standard. Therefore, RFC 1123 wins, no contest.
-
-From RFC 1123, Section 2.1
-
- 2.1 Host Names and Numbers
-
- The syntax of a legal Internet host name was specified in RFC-952
- [DNS:4]. One aspect of host name syntax is hereby changed: the
- restriction on the first character is relaxed to allow either a
- letter or a digit. Host software MUST support this more liberal
- syntax.
-
- And described by Dave Barr in RFC1912:
-
- Allowable characters in a label for a host name are only ASCII
- letters, digits, and the `-' character. Labels may not be all
- numbers, but may have a leading digit (e.g., 3com.com). Labels must
- end and begin only with a letter or digit. See [RFC 1035] and [RFC
- 1123]. (Labels were initially restricted in [RFC 1035] to start with
- a letter, and some older hosts still reportedly have problems with
- the relaxation in [RFC 1123].) Note there are some Internet
- hostnames which violate this rule (411.org, 1776.com).
-
-Finally, one more piece of information (From Paul Vixie):
-
- RFC 1034 says only that domain names have characters in them, though it
- says so with enough fancy and indirection that it's hard to tell exactly.
-
- Generally, for second level domains (i.e., something you would get from
- InterNIC or from the US Domain Registrar and probably other ISO 3166
- country code TLDs), RFC 952 is thought to apply. RFC 952 was about host
- names rather than domain names, but the rules seemed good enough.
-
- <domainname> ::= <hname>
-
- <hname> ::= <name>*["."<name>]
- <name> ::= <let>[*[<let-or-digit-or-hyphen>]<let-or-digit>]
-
-There has been a recent update on this subject which may be found in
-
-ftp.internic.net : /internet-drafts/draft-andrews-dns-hostnames-03.txt.
-
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-Question 4.7. What is lame delegation ?
-
-Date: Mon Aug 5 22:45:02 EDT 1996
-
-Two things are required for a lame delegation:
-
-* A nameserver X is delegated as authoritative for a zone.
-* Nameserver X is not performing nameservice for that zone.
-
-Try to think of a lame delegation as a long-term condition, brought about
-by a misconfiguration somewhere. Bryan Beecher's 1992 LISA paper on lame
-delegations is good to read on this. The problem really lies in
-misconfigured nameservers, not "lameness" brought about by transient
-outages. The latter is common on the Internet and hard to avoid, while
-the former is correctable.
-
-In order to be performing nameservice for a zone, it must have (presumed
-correct) data for that zone, and it must be answering authoritatively to
-resolver queries for that zone. (The AA bit is set in the flags section)
-
-The "classic" lame delegation case is when nameserver X is delegated as
-authoritative for domain Y, yet when you ask Y about X, it returns
-non-authoritative data.
-
-Here's an example that shows what happens most often (using dig, dnswalk,
-and doc to find).
-
-Let's say the domain bogus.com gets registered at the NIC and they have
-listed 2 primary name servers, both from their *upstream* provider:
-
- bogus.com IN NS ns.bogus.com
- bogus.com IN NS upstream.com
- bogus.com IN NS upstream1.com
-
-So the root servers have this info. But when the admins at bogus.com
-actually set up their zone files they put something like:
-
- bogus.com IN NS upstream.com
- bogus.com IN NS upstream1.com
-
-So your name server may have the nameserver info cached (which it may have
-gotten from the root). The root says "go ask ns.bogus.com" since they are
-authoritative
-
-This is usually from stuff being registered at the NIC (either nic.ddn.mil
-or rs.internic.net), and then updated later, but the folks who make the
-updates later never let the folks at the NIC know about it.
-
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-Question 4.8. How can I see if the server is "lame" ?
-
-Date: Mon Aug 5 22:45:02 EDT 1996
-
-Go to the authoritative servers one level up, and ask them who they think
-is authoritative, and then go ask each one of those delegees if they think
-that they themselves are authoritative. If any responds "no", then you
-know who the lame delegation is, and who is delegating lamely to them.
-You can then send off a message to the administrators of the level above.
-
-The 'lamers' script from Byran Beecher really takes care of all this for
-you. It parses the lame delegation notices from BIND's syslog and
-summarizes them for you. It may be found in the contrib section of the
-latest BIND distribution. The latest version is available for anonymous
-ftp from
-
-terminator.cc.umich.edu : /dns/lame-delegations/
-
- If you want to actively check for lame delegations, you can use 'doc'
-and 'dnswalk'. You can check things manually with 'dig'.
-
-The InterNIC recently announced a new lame delegation that will be in
-effect on 01 October, 1996. Here is a summary:
-
-* After receipt/processing of a name registration template, and at random
- intervals thereafter, the InterNIC will perform a DNS query via UDP
- Port 53 on domain names for an SOA response for the name being
- registered.
-* If the query of the domain name returns a non-authoritative response
- from all the listed name servers, the query will be repeated four times
- over the next 30 days at random intervals approximately 7 days apart,
- with notification to all listed whois and nameserver contacts of the
- possible pending deletion. If at least one server answers correctly,
- but one or more are lame, FYI notifications will be sent to all contacts
- and checking will be discontinued. Additionally, e-mail notices will be
- provided to the contact for the name servers holding the delegation to
- alert them to the "lame" condition. Notifications will state explicitly
- the consequences of not correcting the "lame" condition and will be
- assigned a descriptive subject as follows:
-
- Subject: Lame Delegation Notice: DOMAIN_NAME
-
- The notification will include a timestamp for when the query was
- performed.
-* If, following 30 days, the name servers still provide no SOA response,
- the name will be placed in a "hold" status and the DNS information will
- no longer be propagated. The administrative contact will be notified by
- postal mail and all whois contacts will be notified by e-mail, with
- instructions for taking corrective action.
-* Following 60 days in a "hold" status, the name will be deleted and made
- available for reregistration. Notification of the final deletion will
- be sent to the name server and domain name contacts listed in the NIC
- database.
-
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-Question 4.9. What does opt-class field in a zone file do?
-
-Date: Thu Dec 1 11:10:39 EST 1994
-
-This field is the address class. From the BOG -
-
- ...is the address class; currently, only one class
- is supported: IN for internet addresses and other
- internet information. Limited support is included for
- the HS class, which is for MIT/Athena ``Hesiod''
- information.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-Question 4.10. Top level domains
-
-Date: Fri Dec 6 15:13:35 EST 1996
-
-A section from RFC 1591:
-
- 2. The Top Level Structure of the Domain Names
-
- In the Domain Name System (DNS) naming of computers there is a
- hierarchy of names. The root of system is unnamed. There are a set
- of what are called "top-level domain names" (TLDs). These are the
- generic TLDs (EDU, COM, NET, ORG, GOV, MIL, and INT), and the two
- letter country codes from ISO-3166. It is extremely unlikely that
- any other TLDs will be created.
-
------
-
-[ Ed note: the ISO-3166 country codes may be found for anonymous ftp
-from:
-
-* ftp.isi.edu : /in-notes/iana/assignments/country-codes
-* ftp.ripe.net : /iso3166-codes
-
-]
-
-[ Ed note: Since the Internic started charging for registration services,
-(and for other reasons) there are a number of groups that want to offer
-an alternative to registering a domain under a "standard" TLD. More
-information on some of these options may be found at:
-
-* http://www.alternic.net/
-* http://www.eu.org/
-* http://www.ml.org/mljoin.html
-
-You may participate in one of the discussions on iTLD proposals at
-
-* To sign up: http://www.newdom.com/lists
-* Old postings: http://www.newdom.com/archive
-
-]
-
------
-
- ...
- Under each TLD may be created a hierarchy of names. Generally, under
- the generic TLDs the structure is very flat. That is, many
- organizations are registered directly under the TLD, and any further
- structure is up to the individual organizations.
-
- In the country TLDs, there is a wide variation in the structure, in
- some countries the structure is very flat, in others there is
- substantial structural organization. In some country domains the
- second levels are generic categories (such as, AC, CO, GO, and RE),
- in others they are based on political geography, and in still others,
- organization names are listed directly under the country code. The
- organization for the US country domain is described in RFC 1480.
-
- Each of the generic TLDs was created for a general category of
- organizations. The country code domains (for example, FR, NL, KR,
- US) are each organized by an administrator for that country. These
- administrators may further delegate the management of portions of the
- naming tree. These administrators are performing a public service on
- behalf of the Internet community. Descriptions of the generic
- domains and the US country domain follow.
-
- Of these generic domains, five are international in nature, and two
- are restricted to use by entities in the United States.
-
- World Wide Generic Domains:
-
- COM - This domain is intended for commercial entities, that is
- companies. This domain has grown very large and there is
- concern about the administrative load and system performance if
- the current growth pattern is continued. Consideration is
- being taken to subdivide the COM domain and only allow future
- commercial registrations in the subdomains.
-
- EDU - This domain was originally intended for all educational
- institutions. Many Universities, colleges, schools,
- educational service organizations, and educational consortia
- have registered here. More recently a decision has been taken
- to limit further registrations to 4 year colleges and
- universities. Schools and 2-year colleges will be registered
- in the country domains (see US Domain, especially K12 and CC,
- below).
-
- NET - This domain is intended to hold only the computers of network
- providers, that is the NIC and NOC computers, the
- administrative computers, and the network node computers. The
- customers of the network provider would have domain names of
- their own (not in the NET TLD).
-
- ORG - This domain is intended as the miscellaneous TLD for
- organizations that didn't fit anywhere else. Some non-
- government organizations may fit here.
-
- INT - This domain is for organizations established by international
- treaties, or international databases.
-
- United States Only Generic Domains:
-
- GOV - This domain was originally intended for any kind of government
- office or agency. More recently a decision was taken to
- register only agencies of the US Federal government in this
- domain. State and local agencies are registered in the country
- domains (see US Domain, below).
-
- MIL - This domain is used by the US military.
-
- Example country code Domain:
-
- US - As an example of a country domain, the US domain provides for
- the registration of all kinds of entities in the United States
- on the basis of political geography, that is, a hierarchy of
- <entity-name>.<locality>.<state-code>.US. For example,
- "IBM.Armonk.NY.US". In addition, branches of the US domain are
- provided within each state for schools (K12), community
- colleges (CC), technical schools (TEC), state government
- agencies (STATE), councils of governments (COG),libraries
- (LIB), museums (MUS), and several other generic types of
- entities (see RFC 1480 for details).
-
-
-A section from RFC 1480:
-
- 2. NAMING STRUCTURE
-
- The US Domain hierarchy is based on political geography. The
- basic name space under US is the state name space, then the
- "locality" name space, (like a city, or county) then
- organization or computer name and so on.
-
- For example:
-
- BERKELEY.CA.US
- PORTLAND.WA.US
-
- There is of course no problem with running out of names.
-
- The things that are named are individual computers.
-
- If you register now in one city and then move, the database can
- be updated with a new name in your new city, and a pointer can
- be set up from your old name to your new name. This type of
- pointer is called a CNAME record.
-
- The use of unregistered names is not effective and causes problems
- for other users. Inventing your own name and using it without
- registering is not a good idea.
-
- In addition to strictly geographically names, some special names
- are used, such as FED, STATE, AGENCY, DISTRICT, K12, LIB, CC,
- CITY, and COUNTY. Several new name spaces have been created,
- DNI, GEN, and TEC, and a minor change under the "locality" name
- space was made to the existing CITY and COUNTY subdomains by
- abbreviating them to CI and CO. A detailed description
- follows.
-
- Below US, Parallel to States:
- -----------------------------
-
- "FED" - This branch may be used for agencies of the federal
- government. For example: <org-name>.<city>.FED.US
-
- "DNI" - DISTRIBUTED NATIONAL INSTITUTES - The "DNI" branch was
- created directly under the top-level US. This branch is to be used
- for distributed national institutes; organizations that span state,
- regional, and other organizational boundaries; that are national in
- scope, and have distributed facilities. For example:
- <org-name>.DNI.US.
-
- Name Space Within States:
- ------------------------
-
- "locality" - cities, counties, parishes, and townships. Subdomains
- under the "locality" would be like CI.<city>.<state>.US,
- CO.<county>.<state>.US, or businesses. For example:
- Petville.Marvista.CA.US.
-
- "CI" - This branch is used for city government agencies and is a
- subdomain under the "locality" name (like Los Angeles). For example:
- Fire-Dept.CI.Los-Angeles.CA.US.
-
- "CO" - This branch is used for county government agencies and is a
- subdomain under the "locality" name (like Los Angeles). For example:
- Fire-Dept.CO.San-Diego.CA.US.
-
- "K12" - This branch may be used for public school districts. A
- special name "PVT" can be used in the place of a school district name
- for private schools. For example: <school-name>.K12.<state>.US and
- <school-name>.PVT.K12.<state>.US.
-
- "CC" - COMMUNITY COLLEGES - This branch was established for all state
- wide community colleges. For example: <school-name>.CC.<state>.US.
-
- "TEC" - TECHNICAL AND VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS - The branch "TEC" was
- established for technical and vocational schools and colleges. For
- example: <school-name>.TEC.<state>.US.
-
- "LIB" - LIBRARIES (STATE, REGIONAL, CITY, COUNTY) - This branch may
- be used for libraries only. For example: <lib-name>.LIB.<state>.US.
-
- "STATE" - This branch may be used for state government agencies. For
- example: <org-name>.STATE.<state>.US.
-
- "GEN" - GENERAL INDEPENDENT ENTITY - This branch is for the things
- that don't fit easily into any other structure listed -- things that
- might fit in to something like ORG at the top-level. It is best not
- to use the same keywords (ORG, EDU, COM, etc.) that are used at the
- top-level to avoid confusion. GEN would be used for such things as,
- state-wide organizations, clubs, or domain parks. For example:
- <org-name>.GEN.<state-code>.US.
-
-The application form for the US domain may be found:
-
-* for anonymous ftp from internic.net : /templates/us-domain-template.txt
-* http://www.isi.edu/us-domain/
-
-The application form for the EDU, COM, NET, ORG, and GOV domains may be
-found for anonymous ftp from:
-
-internic.net : /templates/domain-template.txt
-
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-Question 4.11. Classes of networks
-
-Date: Wed Sep 4 22:59:27 EDT 1996
-
-The usage of 'classes of networks' (class A, B, C) are historical and have
-been replaced by CIDR blocks on the Internet. That being said...
-
-An Internet Protocol (IP) address is 32 bit in length, divided into two
-or three parts (the network address, the subnet address (if present), and
-the host address. The subnet addresses are only present if the network
-has been divided into subnetworks. The length of the network, subnet, and
-host field are all variable.
-
-There are five different network classes. The leftmost bits indicate the
-class of the network.
-
- # of # of
- bits in bits in
- network host
-Class field field Internet Protocol address in binary Ranges
-============================================================================
- A 7 24 0NNNNNNN.HHHHHHHH.HHHHHHHH.HHHHHHHH 1-127.x.x.x
- B 14 16 10NNNNNN.NNNNNNNN.HHHHHHHH.HHHHHHHH 128-191.x.x.x
- C 22 8 110NNNNN.NNNNNNNN.NNNNNNNN.HHHHHHHH 192-223.x.x.x
- D NOTE 1 1110xxxx.xxxxxxxx.xxxxxxxx.xxxxxxxx 224-239.x.x.x
- E NOTE 2 11110xxx.xxxxxxxx.xxxxxxxx.xxxxxxxx 240-247.x.x.x
-
- where N represents part of the network address and H represents part of
- the host address. When the subnet address is defined, the needed bits
- are assigned from the host address space.
-
- NOTE 1: Reserved for multicast groups - RFC 1112
- NOTE 2: Reserved for future use
-
- 127.0.0.1 is reserved for local loopback.
-
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-Question 4.12. What is CIDR ?
-
-Date: Tue Nov 5 23:47:29 EST 1996
-
-CIDR is "Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR). From RFC 1517:
-
- ...Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) attempts to deal with
- these problems by defining a mechanism to slow the growth of
- routing tables and reduce the need to allocate new IP network
- numbers.
-
-Much more information may be obtained in RFCs 1467, 1517, 1518, 1520;
-with primary reference 1519.
-
-Also please see the CIDR FAQ at
-
-* http://www.ibm.net.il/~hank/cidr.html
-* http://www.rain.net/faqs/cidr.faq.html
-* http://www.lab.unisource.ch/services/internet/direct/cidr.html
-
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-Question 4.13. What is the rule for glue ?
-
-Date: Fri Apr 28 13:31:24 EDT 1995
-
-A glue record is an A record for a name that appears on the right-hand
-side of a NS record. So, if you have this:
-
-
- sub.foobar.com. IN NS dns.sub.foobar.com.
- dns.sub.foobar.com. IN A 1.2.3.4
-
-then the second record is a glue record (for the NS record above it).
-
-You need glue records when -- and only when -- you are delegating
-authority to a nameserver that "lives" in the domain you are delegating
-*and* you aren't a secondary server for that domain.
-
-In other words, in the example above, you need to add an A record for
-dns.sub.foobar.com since it "lives" in the domain it serves. This boot
-strapping information is necessary: How are you supposed to find out the
-IP address of the nameserver for domain FOO if the nameserver for FOO
-"lives" in FOO?
-
-If you have this NS record:
-
- sub.foobar.com. IN NS dns.xyz123.com.
-
-you do NOT need a glue record, and, in fact, adding one is a very bad
-idea. If you add one, and then the folks at xyz123.com change the
-address, then you will be passing out incorrect data.
-
-Also, unless you actually have a machine called something.IN-ADDR.ARPA,
-you will never have any glue records present in any of your "reverse"
-files.
-
-There is also a sort of implicit glue record that can be useful (or
-confusing :^) ). If the parent server (abc.foobar.com domain in example
-above) is a secondary server for the child, then the A record will be
-fetched from the child server when the zone transfer is done. The glue is
-still there but it's a little different, it's in the ip address in the
-named.boot line instead of explicitly in the data. In this case you can
-leave out the explicit glue A record and leave the manually configured
-"glue" in just the one place in the named.boot file.
-
-RFC 1537 says it quite nicely:
-
- 2. Glue records
-
- Quite often, people put unnecessary glue (A) records in their
- zone files. Even worse is that I've even seen *wrong* glue records
- for an external host in a primary zone file! Glue records need only
- be in a zone file if the server host is within the zone and there
- is no A record for that host elsewhere in the zone file.
-
- Old BIND versions ("native" 4.8.3 and older versions) showed the
- problem that wrong glue records could enter secondary servers in
- a zone transfer.
-
-
-The remainder of the FAQ is in the next part (Part 2 of 2).
-