[Courses] Re: [Security] zone transfer

[Hamster]

> Ok, supreme newbie question...
> 
> What is a zone transfer?
> 
> 
> ~Melanie
> 

Let me have a go at this one..

A DNS server is responsible for maintaining the records for a particular group of computers (ie foo.com). This is called a zone. The zone might also include the domains www.foo.com, ftp.foo.com, thismachine.foo.com thatmachine.foo.com. But it doesnt have to.

Now, for the sake of redundancy, you usually have two dns servers looking after a zone. This is incase one blows up or something. The initial server is called the primary zone server, and the second server (bet you cant guess its name) is the secondary zone server. 

A zone transfer happens when the one machine syncronises and updates its dns database with another.

Hope this helps a bit!

Hamster