On Mon, Apr 25, 2005 at 05:11:14PM +0100, Paul Howarth wrote:
> Barry (BJEast75) wrote:
> > I'm VERY new to Linux and need some very simple help here. I have
> > turned on the named service on my linux box (hidden in the loft)
> > that mainly sits there being my DNS server and being the a little
> > file server for my home files that me and my girlfriends pc need
> > acess to (thanks to Samba). All the other pc's in the house use it
> > as their DNS server but the initial requests seem a tad slow
> > compared to using my ISP's dns servers.
> This may be because the ISP DNS servers are used by lots of people and
> quickly build up a cache of the most popular names, so the chances are
> that any given lookup that you request can be satisfied straight away
> from cache. On the other hand, your DNS server is used only by the
> people in your house, so it has to go out and find the answers to your
> queries as and when you make the queries. Things should improve when the
> system has been running for a while and built up a cache, though it's
> still not going to be as good a cache as an ISP server. However, I find
> that running my own DNS server is rather more reliable than those of
> most ISPs I've been with, so I live with it.
I agree, and usually run my own as well.
A possible middle ground is to configure forwarders to the ISP's
nameservers in named.conf.
Something like:
forwarders { xx.xx.xx.xx; };
See also the Bind9 ARM (assuming the OP is using BIND v9).
/w
