fowarding vs named.ca

[Brad Knowles]

At 8:14 PM -0400 2005-07-08, Jim Popovitch wrote:

>  The reason for using the forwarders is so that I don't have this one
>  sole box querying the root servers all the time.  Maybe I'm wrong, but I
>  always thought it best to hit an upstream cache rather than going all
>  the way to the top.

	So long as your local box is not badly misconfigured, you will 
almost never talk to the root servers.  They only store information 
for a few hundred TLDs, and the information they store have pretty 
long TTLs on them.  You're likely to quickly cache most any 
root-level information you need (e.g., where are the nameservers for 
.com), and almost never contact the root servers again.

>                       It certainly would be much simpler for me to
>  eliminate the local cache (what the forwarders hit).

	In this case, simpler is almost always better.

-- 
Brad Knowles, <brad at stop.mail-abuse.org>

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little
temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

     -- Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), reply of the Pennsylvania
     Assembly to the Governor, November 11, 1755

   SAGE member since 1995.  See <http://www.sage.org/> for more info.