[MLB-WIRELESS] Melbwirelses DNS and Domain Names

[Stygen]

Ben Holko
>Sent: Monday, 12 May 2003 12:36 PM
>To: melbwireless at wireless.org.au
>Subject: RE: [MLB-WIRELESS] Melbwirelses DNS and Domain Names
>
>
>sounds to me like the consensus is for internet resolvable 
>names, and IMHO we should use cw.net.au, or your own private 
>domain names if you've got them.
>
>B.


We toyed with the idea of internet resolvable DNS.  While I am not
suggesting that it is a bad idea, we opted for a different approach.
Since the IP's we are using are not internet IP's we cannot expect a
situation where users will not have to change the server they use for
DNS.  That being the case, using a DNS server located on the internet,
is really no different to using one on the wireless network (especially
when it comes down to redundancy).  

Server Locations
----------------
Also, since wireless links between AP's can be rather flakey under many
circumstances, I suggest you prepare a DNS server on each AP.  In this
way each AP is responsible for their own naming, with one master server
(or more) being responsible for passing the names to the other
servers/AP's.  The result will be an adequate number of DNS servers on
the network, but each being responsible for their own domain
(decentralising should make name requests quicker for new nodes).  It is
quite easy to make a few of these servers also internet accessible,
thereby giving the choice to users to use a DNS server on the internet
or wireless net.  As these servers should all have the same content,
they can be set as primary and secondary.  In fact any combination of
servers can be used providing they have the same content and you choose
those that are closest to you (number of hops).


Nomenclature
------------
It is made easier if everyone agrees on a naming convention (There will
always be those idiots who just refuse to agree on anything). As most
people know, we chose <user>.<gateway>.<AP>.wafreenet or just
<user>.<AP>.wafreenet if you want to keep it simple.  For example, this
workstation is stygen.citrusnet.wafreenet, my nntp server is
news.citrusnet.wafreenet... One of the citrusnet clients resides behind
his gateway to my AP so his workstation is
andrew.supergate.citrusnet.wafreenet (I also gave him an entry as
andrew.citrusnet.wafreenet).  I'll leave you to argue about how you will
set yours up.


Redundancy and Completeness
---------------------------
Most of you know that there are very few ISP run DNS servers that can be
truly classed as reliable.  The main reason I initially setup a DNS
server was to cache internet names for the next time my ISP's DNS died.
The caching DNS server is an excellent way to ensure that you aren't
left high and dry when it comes to DNS.  The downside is that most
caching DNS servers don't do reverse lookups, so traceroutes arent
particularly informative.  I tend to set mine up to feed from bind.
Users can choose to use the caching server or the 'live' server (being
bind).  The way our wireless DNS servers works then, is that each AP has
a DNS server that acts a master for its own domain *.AP.WAFREENET and
slave/forwarder of the master server *.*.WAFREENET, as well as forwarder
of the AP admin's favourite internet DNS servers.  By using any one of
the wireless DNS servers will give you naming services for the entire
wireless network and internet.  Any one of these DNS servers can be
opened up to the internet for people to use as well.  The result is
reliable, allows for redundancy and causes no problems once setup.


I watch with interest to see how you setup your DNS.

-Stygen



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