[MLB-WIRELESS] DNS: What is our zone going to look like?

Victor dawormie at gmail.com
Tue Mar 24 21:21:18 EST 2009


My thoughts on this:

Q1 - I think using wireless.org.au as the "root" is the best option here. If
things take off for a "free" national wifi network down the track, then as
you say, it'll be easy to bring other cities on board.
     - in addition to WWW, also disallow FTP and SSH (and other short 3
letter acronyms) WWW the most obvious, but I think other short "3" letters
that are known to those that have dabbled even the tinniest bit in linux,
not so much used but just looked at for a bit before going "too hard" and
back to windows.  Is it possible someone can block these on the MW website?
Will it require renewed interest in maintaining the actual website and
upgrading some functions within it? IE: The creation of node names.

Q2 - It does make things rather long, so perhaps internally set it up as
"kct.melbourne.wireless" "kdj.geelong.wireless" as a base level design.
That would map with internal and external easy enough.  If it cannot find
"kdj.geelong.wireless" it will automatically map itself to "
kdj.geelong.wireless.org.au" and bounce the user out their normal internet
connection (assuming they have one).

Q3 - Making it easy would be to possibly give the user the steps for WinXP /
Vista / (god forbid) 95 & 98 / MAC / Linux / <insert flavour of linux> to
add an IP as a their first port of call. Based on location. The main DNS
hosting should be done by users who have some understanding (or at least
willing to supply the required access to a hosted service in their locale)
for DNS resolution.

I'm sure, someone with some smarts can construct a web-page that will
generate a script the end-user can run to insert the appropriate
information. Perhaps have a tiny, Tiny, TINY 3rd party app that will go "oh
you want something on the internal wireless? Go HERE!" and redirect them to
the local DNS for their locale.


As I said, this WILL require the co-operation of various users in various
locales, that while they may not have the smarts to operate a feature
themselves, are willing to donate the use of hardware they might be able to
have dedicated turned on at their home.

It won't be foolproof, but I think it may be one of the easier solutions.

Means should ballarat.wireless drop off from connection to the greater
wireless network, anyone there can still resolve their internal network with
little issue.

On Tue, Mar 24, 2009 at 8:30 PM, Russell Smith <mr-russ at pws.com.au> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I know we don't have any firm answers on who controls the melbourne
> wireless domains on the internet.  But that does not stop use deciding on
> what we are doing going forward on the internal DNS resolution.
>
> The two pages on the wiki are;
> http://www.melbourne.wireless.org.au/wiki/?DNSConvention
> http://www.melbourne.wireless.org.au/wiki/?DNS
>
> Both of these appear quite old and don't have any future direction or
> people setting them up :)  I don't like what's presented in DNSConvention
> and have outlined a proposal below for comment.
>
>
> We gave two domains for melbourne wireless.  One wireless.org.au, one
> melbournewirless.org.au.
>
> http://melbourne.wireless.org.au/
> http://melbournewireless.org.au/
>
> For portability and the ability to map all wireless networks into one DNS
> space, wireless.org.au would be good to continue to use.  If we connect to
> other states, we can have adelaide.wireless.org.au or even
> geelong.wireless.org.au.  For setting up DNS it needs to be decided which
> domain we are going to use as a base.
>
> Q1: What are your thoughts?
>
> I think the best option is to use wireless.org.au for everything.  It
> along with the fact I believe a root domain complicates life and doesn't
> allow you to easily run internal and external facing websites with the same
> DNS name.
>
> 1. Other cities can come on board with that same domain name.  eg
> adelaide.wireless.org.au, geelong.wireless.org.au
> 2. We can resolve names to varying lengths of short when inside the
> network.  in melbourne;  http://gw.kct/ is my gateway, for geelong it's;
> http://gw.abc.geelong/
> 3. Easy forwarding to other DNS servers, don't need to query root and do
> recursive.
> 4. Easy setup, no mucking with roots, complicated forwarding and the like.
> 5. Split DNS.  You can allow internet clients to resolve certain nodes
> if we like, eg; http://gw.kct.melbourne.wireless.org.au/
>
> possible downsides are;
> 1. need to disallow creation of a www node as people will assume it's the
> website.  And it is externally.
> 2. You need to maintain the DNS both on the Internet and on MW for the
> relevant external records.  eg mail, www
>
> Q2: Is this a good format and what format would you propose/support?
> I know Mike has suggested http://www.kct.node.melbourne.wireless.org.au/
>
> I expect we would set MW clients to set their DNS to the internal DNS
> server and receive all of their DNS resolution through MW.  As far as I'm
> aware it's going to be very difficult to make it any easier for your average
> user to connect and get DNS resolution.
>
> Q3: Ideas about making DNS easy for clients?
>
>
> I'd also say melbournewireless.org.au should be a 301
> redirect to www.melbourne.wireless.org.au so you are using consistent
> names both inside and outside the network for our website.
>
> The only configuration that's required at the client end is the add the
> following into their DNS suffixes.
>
> You would add;  melbourne.wireless.org.au wireless.org.au
> That can be done on the dhcp server or on the client.    And instantly you
> can resolve all short names.
>
> Q4: Anything else to contribute?
>
> Regards
>
> Russell
>
> _______________________________________________
> Melbwireless mailing list
> Melbwireless at wireless.org.au
> http://wireless.org.au/mailman/listinfo/melbwireless
>



-- 
Victor ('Daworm')
Melbourne Wireless Node: KDJ & KDT
AoCWiki Sysop  (http://aoc.wikia.com/)
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