Slow domain name resolution

secondshadow · Guru Joined: 23 Jun 2003 Posts: 362

Alrighty, now I have an odd problem for someone out there. On my network there is a stupid little server box that acts as a router for our cable modem and the 5 computers on the network. Its running either Win98SE or WinME (yeah I know, but I'm not allowed to mess with the server unless I can guarentee that it won't be down for more than about 15 minutes...I'll be converting so some linux variant as soon as I learn more about setting it up) using a Windows ICS (Internet Connection Sharing) connection. The problem I'm having is that in linux it take quite a bit longer to resolve domain names. In windows its as if the computer were connected directly to the cable modem just about, but in linux it takes several seconds. Any idea what may be causing this and how to fix it? Also, where would I go to find information on setting up a network that would act similarly to the one currently running (ie using DHCP and without breaking anything)?

fimblo · Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2003 12:24 pm Post subject:

what ip does resolv.conf point to? if it points at your router-puter it could be doing the resolving for you, which is one unnecessary step. It could be there where it takes time...

About setting up your own linuxbox with all the services which your winputer has, I'd start by making a list of all the services you are interested in.

sshd
dhcpd
iptables with NAT functionality
screen

optional (but fun)

nessusd
samba and/or nfs
postfix or sendmail
apache

The more stuff you stick in your linux router the more you'll have to think about security.
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secondshadow · Guru Joined: 23 Jun 2003 Posts: 362

In resolv.conf it says:

digital diesel · Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2003 4:46 am Post subject:

take your ISP's domain and it's dns servers and make a new /etc/resolv.conf Oh yeah and be sure to back up your old one.

secondshadow · Guru Joined: 23 Jun 2003 Posts: 362

not too sound like a total n00b but what does search do/specify? I read the man page on it, but I don't know a whole lot about networking (yet...taking a class at the moment, but its not going to cover anything usefull for my home network yet...lots of theory about different types of networks and how they work).

fimblo · Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2003 5:05 pm Post subject:

search adds functionality to the domain function.

if you would add the line "domain blaha.com" in resolv.conf, and you want to say ssh to shell.blaha.com, al you have to type in your command prompt would be ssh shell. or if you want to surf to www.blaha.com, you can point your browser to http://www.

now if you want more alternatives, you can add the line "search bar.com" to resolv.com.

now if you type ssh foo, your system will first try to find an ip which resolves to foo.blaha.com. if this doesnt exist, it will try foo.bar.com. If it cant find an ip which matches one of these domain names, it will give up.

On my laptop, I have a domain field and a search field, like so:

secondshadow · Guru Joined: 23 Jun 2003 Posts: 362

Thanks digital for recommending -R. I added that and viola, domain name resolution is almost instantanious now. Oddly, without any modification, resolv.conf changed to: