[ntp:questions] http://www.ntp.org/ => a blank page?

Richard B. Gilbert rgilbert88 at comcast.net
Tue Mar 10 13:39:54 UTC 2009


David J Taylor wrote:
> Martin Burnicki wrote:
>> David,
>>
>> David J Taylor wrote:
>>> Richard B. Gilbert wrote:
>>> []
>>>> I've been using Comcast for five or six years now without a problem!
>>>> YMMV.
>>>
>>> There have been a few problems with my ISP, hence I moved to a 3rd
>>> party.
>>
>> We did't ever have any problems using the DNS servers of our ISPs.
> 
> At the time, mine was using servers in the USA (from the UK) and via 
> non-reciprocal paths.  Even now, it seems to be using servers from 
> abroad, and has no local reference clock....  I don't think that anyone 
> "cared" for it.
> 
>>> I used to have my own DNS server.  You do /not/ have to get the rest
>>> of the world from Comcast.  DNS is /not/ like NTP, and you talk
>>> directly to the root servers to start with, which then pass you down
>>> gradually to the correct server for the domain (e.g. for
>>> microsoft.com) and in future you query the relevant domain server
>>> directly.  All seems to work very smoothly and automatically.
>>
>> IMHO DNS is not like NTP in the sense that is just *starts* sending
>> queries for domains which have not yet been resolved to the root DNS
>> servers and then are redirected/go on down to the authoritative DNS
>> for that domain, whereas NTP would stuck with the top level servers
>> if they have been configured.
> 
> Agreed.  When I first answered I had missed that Richard probably knows 
> more about DNS than me!
> 

I used to be an "expert" but time has taken its toll; I have forgotten a 
lot and things have changed in the last ten years.  Eleven years ago, my 
then employer's "upstream provider" asked us to stop using their DNS 
server.  Fair enough; we had something like 2,000 student users!  They 
sent and received a lot of mail; it was a heavy load!

I set up a local DNS server.  At first it was simply a "caching" server; 
ask once and keep the answer on hand.  Then I built the database to make 
the server "authoritative" for the site, got our upstream provider to 
host a copy. . . .   It was highly educational!




More information about the questions mailing list