[techtalk] Registering DNS servers

jenn at simegen.com jenn at simegen.com
Tue Apr 10 20:25:19 EST 2001


Mary Gardiner wrote:


> I host puzzling.org on 203.24.211.109. The reverse lookup is actually
> ophelia.weblink.com.au because of course reverse lookups are done by the
> nameserver for the whole class C.
> 
> If I want to have a nameserver on that machine (and I may), must it be named
> ophelia.weblink.com.au and registered with AUNIC, or could I name it
> ns.puzzling.org (for example) and register it with NSI?
> 
> Mary.

It depends on whether it's the nameserver for puzzling.org or for 
weblink.com.au.

Which one(s) do you want it to be the authoritative DNS for? It
can only be the /authoritative/ DNS for domains that it's registered
as the DNS for. For everyone else, it is, at best, a tertiary.
(Primary and secondary DNSes for any domain are registered at the 
various authorities.)

Dancer says that it is possible to have unregistered secondaries
(which is what I called tertiary). When someone looks your stuff
up cold, it's the registered DNSes they try. They can't access
your unregistered secondaries until they know about them, and they
can't know about them till they've accessed your registered servers.

Me again: you can have a DNS on any machine you like. An unregistered 
DNS will only be serving your own machines who use it as their source 
for domain names/IP addresses. You only need to register a DNS if you
want it used as an authoritative source for a domain. If that's what
you want, you register it with the authority for that domain. (And
a single DNS can be registered multiple times and be authoritative
for multiple domains.)



Jenn V.
-- 
     "Do you ever wonder if there's a whole section of geek culture
             you miss out on by being a geek?" - Dancer.

jenn at simegen.com     Jenn Vesperman     http://www.simegen.com/~jenn/





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