Re: ppp and new users (was: Re: Tecnology and marketing)
On 26 Mar 1998 john@dhh.gt.org wrote:
> Jeff Sheinberg writes:
> > Why muck with something you don't need? From resolv.conf(5)
>
> > On a normally configured system this file should not be
> > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> > necessary.
>
> These are not "normally configured" systems. They are dialup boxes with
> dynamic addresses and intermittent connections.
>
> > I guess that if you aren't running bind, then you do need
> > /etc/resolv.conf after all.
>
> As long as the system is dialing into only one isp, we can just put the
> nameservers in /etc/resolv.conf and be happy. The problem comes when the
> user wants to be able to dial in to several isps. He should use the name
> servers of the isp he is currently connected to. The obvious way to do
> this is to put all the nameservers in resolv.conf and re-order it for each
> connection. I find this distasteful. Is there a cleaner way to achieve a
> the same result with bind?
yes. if bind is installed, then /etc/resolv.conf can have "nameserver
127.0.0.1". as long as bind is not configured in slave mode, it should
work perfectly. actually, even if it is in slave mode it should work
fine too....i don't think anybody ever bothers firewalling incoming udp
port 53 (dns) requests as that would be a bit counter-productive :-).
in other words, using bind is the right thing to do. it's a good general
solution that works for everyone, and it doesn't require bizarre
in-place edits of config files (which might be good for some people, but
infuriating for others).
IMO, bind *should* be installed on every ppp -only system - the caching
of DNS makes a significant difference to internet responsiveness
compared to having your dns server at the other end of a loaded modem
link.
maybe ppp should suggest bind, with a short note in the Description:
field explaining why it's a good idea to install it on a stand-alone dialup
machine. Bind should certainly be installed on any machine which is acting
as a ip masquerading gateway.
craig
ps: too many people think that bind is hard because they have read
ancient howtos from the early sls or slackware days telling people that
installing bind was really difficult and they shouldn't do it. even
in those days, that was complete bullshit...i had bind up and running
within a few days of my first ever linux installation. installing bind
on a debian box is trivial. select it in dselect is all it takes. it
only gets complicated when you want to run as primary or secondary for a
domain.
--
craig sanders
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