I noticed all posts talked about caching DNS. I haven't got the faintest idea of what it really is. I figure it's a system which checks with an external DNS (maybe the one in my resolv.conf now) and makes a copy of the whole list on my computer. Then I should point resolv.conf to 127.0.0.1. Is this right?
Close. A local (meaning "in your own network") caching nameserver does not authoritatively answer for any domains. All it does it help you find the answer to your DNS questions (resolve those queries, in technical-speak). The word "caching" comes in because, when it finds an answer, it caches that answer for some time in order to provide quicker answers to the next guy who asks, and also to reduce traffic on your outside Internet connection.
If you install a caching nameserver, then yes... it is best to point your resolv.conf to 127.0.0.1 and tell all other computers on your network to ask this one (not 127.0.0.1 but rather its network IP address, something like 192.168.0.1 probably). However, if you only have two or three machines, you may find yourself best served by not worrying about this at all and simply using your ISP's DNS server as you are doing now. That's the very reason they have one... so you don't have to. :-)
1) Does this speed up my internet connection?
Not really. Your DNS server does the same amount of work that your ISP's server does, and likely takes just as long.
2) Is it reliable? Supposing the DNS table changes, does the copy on my HD change the first time I connect to the net, or is there a manual procedure to update it?
Every given record has an expiration time; it's not a whole table. So you ask for www.yahoo.com, you get an answer, and that answer is kept in cache for 3 hours (as an example). That particular piece of data will expire in 3 hours, and then the question will be asked again if needed. Within those first three hours, if you ask for www.yahoo.com again you will get an answer from the cache in about 1ms. Note that your ISP would return an answer almost as fast, within the same time frame of three hours or so, and with less work on your part.
3) Brian Fahrlander said "Keep things simple to get the functionality, THEN improve it to make it easier on all those involved." Does that mean that caching DNS reduces the load on the net?
Yes, it reduces the traffic on the net somewhat (since now three people are all sharing a DNS server). This, however, assumes that you configure your DNS server to always ask your ISP's server /first/ before going out and finding the answer on its own. That's called a "forwarder", and setting one up allows you to take advantage of the fact that likely at least one of the thousands of customers your ISP has, wanted www.yahoo.com within the last three hours. If you don't check your forwarders first, then you will likely generate /more/ traffic for the Internet as a whole, not less.
Setting up your own DNS server has its benefits, and is not all that hard. What I'm trying to show is that, if all you're doing is surfing, and e-mail, and generally speaking you are a client and not a server for anything, doing your own DNS at home is likely more work than it's worth. And one more program running is one more potential security hole someday. So it's not a magic cure that everyone should take... it's a great and useful tool that /might/ be wonderful for you, but maybe not.
-- Rodolfo J. Paiz rpaiz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://www.simpaticus.com
