DNS servers--an Internet Achilles heel

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Re: It is not just XP..

Also, even though the ISP handles DNS requests, it still sends on those it can't resolve.

I don't think that's right, or it's right but I'm reading you wrong.

The ISP DNS server doesn't hand you off and wash its hands of you. It queries the DNS on your behalf until it finds an answer which it relays back to you. On top of that it caches the answer so it knows it when the next request comes in for it.

If it just said, "Beats me!" and passed you up the chain, then pretty soon it would have an empty cache and it would do nothing else.

By no means am I an expert but I have watched DNS traffic on my home network. The queries that go out onto the net are from the local DNS server I run and all the replies are directed back to my router's port 53. I've never seen the remote DNS server talk directly to a client on my network nor vice versa.

But I have seen XP contact A DNS server in the microsoft.com domain space. My suspicions are aroused by unconfigured-for and unpredictable behavior on the part of XP. I don't trust it if it's doing things I don't expect and are not documented. Port 53 to that netblock is now blocked.

The parent post is on the right track but going in the wrong direction. XP doesn't do this out of good intentions. XP does this to enrich Microsoft with market knowledge.

Having market knowledge is not evil but I prefer to use an OS where the designers pay all their attention to the software and none to self-serving marketing features.





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Posted by: none none   Posted on: 08/03/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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