>My head hurts...
Hehehe... DNS will do that to you. The first time I learned about DNS
architecture I kept 2 instructors overtime for 1.5 hrs, both of them were
going over it and over it and over it... :-D I'm still thankful for that.
Because it's kinda confusing at first. Well, at least it was for me.
lol - I just tried open2space.com, and guess what happened? I couldn't get
to it from my computer, but I could from the firewall. But now I can get to
it from the firewall cache. *sigh* Isn't networking fun?! :-)
K, I did some thinking and some poking around a Linux box last night, and
here are the principles I came up with; you can tell me if you like them or
not.
1. BIND is the "right" tool for handling DNS -- but I personally think that
it is overkill in your network scenario. However, if you want to learn
BIND, now is a good time. But I think that it is more administrative
overhead than you need.
2. I have a working theory for automatically updating Superreal.com's DNS
server with your ever-changing DHCP addy. I'm working on a
proof-of-concept. It's below at the end of the e-mail.
3. I still believe that someone out there smarter than me has done this
idea already and it must be in some really slick, smart package or script.
I'm not sure who that person or what that package is yet. But I'm working
on it. hehehe
- Here's (basically) how DDNS services like TZO, dyndns.org, etc. work:
they put a piece of software on your computer/router that monitors whether
the IP has changed, and, if it has, it sends the update to their DNS
servers. This functionality is most definitely possible with Linux, I just
don't know how (yet). But suffice it to say it shouldn't necessitate the
use of BIND. After all, these DDNS services do not require you to run a DNS
server on your home network. Just a small piece of software.
However, if you *do* want to use BIND, you'll have to be able to have BIND
talk to Superreal.com's DNS servers in an exchange where they swap zone file
information. Typically, you would do this because your DNS server (BIND) is
"authoritative" for your domain (open2space.com) -- that is, it is in charge
of all the host (or A, for 'alias') records for your web server, FTP server,
e-mail server, etc. The Superreal.com DNS server will send people to your
BIND server for help in getting to the open2space.com domain which it knows
so much about, but, unfortunately, that's not going to work so well if the
BIND server is getting a DHCP address from Telus that changes periodically!
Suddenly, people won't be able to get to your BIND server, and no one will
get to your web site/FTP/e-mail, etc. So we're back to the original
problem, which is updating Superreal with your DHCP addy.
- I'll interject my own monologue to say that all this is the case
*unless* BIND is aware, or can be made aware, of a DHCP address change. I
dunno whether it can or not. But I'd sure like to know! :-)
Unless you have a lot of DNS entries to manage, and administration becomes
troublesome to manage because of it, I think a script that runs dnsupdate or
some other tool would be adequate.
*Phew*. To prove I'm not made of just words (just mostly made of words)
;-), here's the theory I worked out:
------------
start dhcpcd -d for debug mode - adds syslog logging, then parse syslog
using logwatch for renewal events on which to fire DNS update script.
another place to parse may be the <ConfigDir>/dhcpcd-<interface>.info file.
or possibly you could monitor for anytime the dhcpcd.exe script is executed.
------------
we could script thusly:
0. wait for event
1. on event, parse .info file/syslog for ip
2. store ip in varip
3. fire up dnsupdate and have it send a new a record using varip
I don't know if this is feasible, but it seems likely, so I'm going to work
on implementing this idea as well as looking for someone who's already done
it on Google.
All responses are welcome! Test my thinking, my understanding, and maybe
together we can find the best solution for Shawn. And then all can have it
for all time through the wonder of "archives". :-D
Curtis.
-----Original Message-----
From: Shawn Grover [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Monday, February 10, 2003 7:19 PM
To: Curtis Sloan
Subject: RE: (clug-talk) Dynamic DNS help?
As for Aaron's request, yes, I can resolve "open2space.com" to my external
address (did a ping, it finds the external IP) - on the router itself. Err
from inside the network as well.
Running nslookup against the superreal name server returns both the external
and internal address (a result from my trials with nsupdate).
Even more interesting - I just pinged the address from the roommates
computer (which is outside of my network and goes through Telus before
getting to my box) - it is resolving the external IP properly... Now I'm
confused. If this was going to work properly, I should have seen the
results 2 weeks ago, not just today (I last made a change to the DNS at
superreal 3 weeks ago). Maybe my bind configuration IS working?
My head hurts... can someone try to get to www.open2space.com and tell me
if you see an ugly picture of a proton rocket? thanks. (my roomie's won't
work because of our network setup...) If that works, can you try to email
[EMAIL PROTECTED]?
Shawn
-----Original Message-----
From: Curtis Sloan
To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]'
Sent: 2/10/03 6:18 PM
Subject: RE: (clug-talk) Dynamic DNS help?
<snip>
