What are the benefits of moving from MS DNS to BIND8 under NT?
You lose the GUI interface and have to edit the config files by hand, but you get more security (restrict zone transfers, restrict queries, various holes and pollution possibiilties removed), and for bigger sites, with firewalls, etc, you have many more config options. Plus BIND mastery is better for career, esp as a postmaster. vbg
How stable is BIND8 on NT? Any help or comments appreciated.
I run BIND 8.2.2p5 slave slave right on my Imail server so Imail doesn't have to go across my LAN to my FreeBSD master nameserver. This works just fine, it just runs. I see no major pb's in the ISC BIND users list concerning BIND 8.2.2p5. BIND 9 is coming into beta test phase.
You can get BIND 8.2.2p5 binaries for NT here: ftp://ns4.netpacq.net
One initial gotcha I found is that in named.conf, options {directory "path";}, the path should be fully qualified.
Paste these logging options into named.conf for fascinating results worth studying for a day or two. There A LOT OF STUFF going on in name services!!
/*
logging {
channel my_file {file "c:\winnt\system32\DNS\etc\named.run"; severity debug; print-time yes;};
category default {my_file;};
category panic {my_file;};
category packet {my_file;};
category eventlib {my_file;};
category queries {my_file;};
};
*/
( note: remove the /* */ comment delimiters )
I find DNS, from the root-servers.net to my little copy of BIND, to be one of the coolest, most "intriguing" aspects of Internet. Join the ISC list, Cricket Liu (of the O'Reilly "cricket" book and www.AcmeBW.com), Barry Margolin, Kevin Darcy, etc give excellent assistance on an excellent, flame-free list.
Len
