Hello,

I was wondering if it's possible to set up a DNS server on my home comp?(Windows 98/Windows 2000) I already know how to setup a webserver and do hosting on it. I was just curious how a DNS server is setup , the technicalities involved. How do the DNS records update themselves?

Don't worry I'm not starting a hosting business from my home comp :p. Just curious about the technical details. :) I was thinking about setting up a DNS server and maybe it would increase the name to IP conversion for my sites. I'm not talking about the hosts file, there I have to manually add all the hostnames.

anyone?

You can take a look at DNS & BIND 4th Edition by Oreily (http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/dns4/), its a very good resource for DNS and Bind related information IMO. However, the book's examples deal mainly with UNIX platforms so it might take some additional thoughts to make sense on a Windows platform.

Hope this helps :)

thanks ck!

First, you must have a static IP address to run a DNS server.

Originally posted by LastActionHero
Hello,

I was wondering if it's possible to set up a DNS server on my home comp?(Windows 98/Windows 2000) I already know how to setup a webserver and do hosting on it. I was just curious how a DNS server is setup , the technicalities involved. How do the DNS records update themselves?

Don't worry I'm not starting a hosting business from my home comp :p. Just curious about the technical details. :) I was thinking about setting up a DNS server and maybe it would increase the name to IP conversion for my sites. I'm not talking about the hosts file, there I have to manually add all the hostnames.

Originally posted by taz0
First, you must have a static IP address to run a DNS server.



No, you don't have to. However your DNS servers must have constant DNS names. You can achieve that by using dynamic DNS service, some are offered free. Of course there are some reliability problem when the host are down, but the concept are similar if you run DNS servers on static IP accress.

Originally posted by priyadi

No, you don't have to.
Correct, BUT, what good is a DNS server if no one but the localhost can query it. Anyone that needs to use the DNS service would need to know the IP of the DNS server. If it is dynamic, that becomes a problem. This is probably moot anyways, since he is only doing testing.

Originally posted by RutRow

Correct, BUT, what good is a DNS server if no one but the localhost can query it. Anyone that needs to use the DNS service would need to know the IP of the DNS server. If it is dynamic, that becomes a problem. This is probably moot anyways, since he is only doing testing.

Or course if you don't hook the machine to the Internet, it won't accomplish much :)

To put it simply, to find an address, a DNS client must find an authoritative hostname for that address, the hostname should not be changed over time (i.e. static), but the IP address could be dynamic, as long as the hostname is maintained to point to the correct IP.

An implementation example: get an account from a dynamic DNS provider (i.e. dyndns.org, dhs.org), make two hostnames that would be your DNS servers, run DNS servers on that two servers with proper authoritative zone(s), make sure both DNS servers are synchronized in some way, ask your NIC to delegate your zones to those DNS servers.

As you can see, it is not impossible to run Internet DNS servers on dynamic IP. What makes it rather impractical is the way NICs handle registration, most NICs (i.e. .com .net .org) has an assumption that DNS servers are always on static IP. However if you are the 'NIC' (i.e. delegating subdomain from your zone), you can easily do that.

:D

Ahh yes... DYNDNS, the saviour for PPPoE DSL and CM users.

I am not entirely convinced this will work, though. When you register a valid DNS server, it has to go through NSI registry. Go here, http://www.nsiregistry.com/ and use their whois nameserver tool. There has to be a staic IP assigned to the nameserver you set up. It will not query your server for an update, this has to be requested through your registrar. In fact I can query DNS names that are no longer in my zone files and still get the old IP, or put in the old IP and get the old nameserver name that I don't use anymore.

Originally posted by RutRow
:D

Ahh yes... DYNDNS, the saviour for PPPoE DSL and CM users.

I am not entirely convinced this will work, though. When you register a valid DNS server, it has to go through NSI registry. Go here, http://www.nsiregistry.com/ and use their whois nameserver tool. There has to be a staic IP assigned to the nameserver you set up. It will not query your server for an update, this has to be requested through your registrar. In fact I can query DNS names that are no longer in my zone files and still get the old IP, or put in the old IP and get the old nameserver name that I don't use anymore.

Yeah, that what I mean they assumed the DNS servers' IP addresses won't change over time. It can be done, but not without some hassles. Those nameserver with corresponding IP address information on nsiregistry should be informative only except in the case where glue records are required i.e. registering example.com with NS record ns1.example.com. Since we are registering example.com with NS record outside example.com, it won't require glue record (if they do, they are in violation of RFCs).

I have done this successfully for delegating a subdomain of my zone, but without registration hassles above. That's it, if you do the delegation yourself, it is real easy. So the problem is not even technical. The problem is how you will manage to add those records on their (registrar's) zone files.