[MLB-WIRELESS] Melbwirelses DNS and Domain Names

[Ryan Abbenhuys]

Thanks very much Stygen, most informative and good to get some info what
what the WAfreenet people are doing seeings they actually have a decent
size network.

>We toyed with the idea of internet resolvable DNS.  While I am not
>suggesting that it is a bad idea, we opted for a different approach.
>Since the IP's we are using are not internet IP's we cannot expect a
>situation where users will not have to change the server they use for
>DNS.  That being the case, using a DNS server located on the internet,
>is really no different to using one on the wireless network (especially
>when it comes down to redundancy).  
>
>Server Locations
>----------------
>Also, since wireless links between AP's can be rather flakey under many
>circumstances, I suggest you prepare a DNS server on each AP.  In this
>way each AP is responsible for their own naming, with one master server
>(or more) being responsible for passing the names to the other
>servers/AP's.  The result will be an adequate number of DNS servers on
>the network, but each being responsible for their own domain
>(decentralising should make name requests quicker for new nodes).  It is
>quite easy to make a few of these servers also internet accessible,
>thereby giving the choice to users to use a DNS server on the internet
>or wireless net.  As these servers should all have the same content,
>they can be set as primary and secondary.  In fact any combination of
>servers can be used providing they have the same content and you choose
>those that are closest to you (number of hops).
>
>
>Nomenclature
>------------
>It is made easier if everyone agrees on a naming convention (There will
>always be those idiots who just refuse to agree on anything). As most
>people know, we chose <user>.<gateway>.<AP>.wafreenet or just
><user>.<AP>.wafreenet if you want to keep it simple.  For example, this
>workstation is stygen.citrusnet.wafreenet, my nntp server is
>news.citrusnet.wafreenet... One of the citrusnet clients resides behind
>his gateway to my AP so his workstation is
>andrew.supergate.citrusnet.wafreenet (I also gave him an entry as
>andrew.citrusnet.wafreenet).  I'll leave you to argue about how you will
>set yours up.
>
>
>Redundancy and Completeness
>---------------------------
>Most of you know that there are very few ISP run DNS servers that can be
>truly classed as reliable.  The main reason I initially setup a DNS
>server was to cache internet names for the next time my ISP's DNS died.
>The caching DNS server is an excellent way to ensure that you aren't
>left high and dry when it comes to DNS.  The downside is that most
>caching DNS servers don't do reverse lookups, so traceroutes arent
>particularly informative.  I tend to set mine up to feed from bind.
>Users can choose to use the caching server or the 'live' server (being
>bind).  The way our wireless DNS servers works then, is that each AP has
>a DNS server that acts a master for its own domain *.AP.WAFREENET and
>slave/forwarder of the master server *.*.WAFREENET, as well as forwarder
>of the AP admin's favourite internet DNS servers.  By using any one of
>the wireless DNS servers will give you naming services for the entire
>wireless network and internet.  Any one of these DNS servers can be
>opened up to the internet for people to use as well.  The result is
>reliable, allows for redundancy and causes no problems once setup.
>
>
>I watch with interest to see how you setup your DNS.
>
>-Stygen
>
>
>
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