ICMP packets

[Kevin Darcy]

Mathew Thomas wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> Our DNS server is bind 9.2.1 running on Intel Solaris 8. I could see a =
> lots of ICMP packets sent (several 10000s of Echo Reply, and 100s of =
> Unreach) and Packet received (several 10000s of Echo Request, Unreach, =
> Redirect, Time Exceed and 100s of Echo reply)  per day by the DNS server. =
> Is it normal or something wrong with our DNS server ? We are a university =
> and  quite a busy site. I am not doing ang ping or traceroute from the DNS =
> server.=20

Since the Echo Reply's are being *sent* and the Echo Request's are being
*received*, then this implies that someone is pinging your server, not the
other way around.

BIND doesn't use ICMP directly, although some configurations on some platforms
(AIX, maybe others) can cause ICMP packets to be generated in response to
DNS activity. But, even so, those weren't Echo Request or Echo Reply
ICMP packets...


- Kevin