Question Re: Windows Hosts and BIND

[tnaves at linkwest.net]

On Thu, 11 Mar 2004, Kevin Darcy wrote:

> tnaves at linkwest.net wrote:
> 
> >Do you folks typically include all your Windows hosts as well as other
> >hosts in your dns zones?  I noticed that if I did not include my Windows
> >hosts in dns the NXDOAMIN incident went way up.  If I checked antivirus on
> >a host using my web browser that would result in an NXDOMAIN.  Also if
> >someone was using a MS Proxy Server each time he connects to the Internet
> >would result in an NXDOMAIN.
> >
> >I was wondering what is best practice?
> >
> Our historical practice here is to not include ordinary PC hosts in DNS. 
> However, some of the more modern management (e.g. remote-control) apps 
> like to work with names instead of IP addresses even for PC devices. 
> So's there's a certain amount of pressure to put everything into DNS.
> 
> Having said that, though, I'm not sure why you're worrying so much about 
> NXDOMAINs. NXDOMAIN is a *response*, not an error, like the word 
> "non-existent", which is not problematic in and of itself; it depends on 
> the context. It's perfectly normal and natural to have plenty of 
> NXDOMAINs. While they are to a certain extent symptomatic of problems 
> with other apps, i.e. why keeping looking up names you've already been 
> told don't exist?, there's no way you can go through all of those apps 
> and fix/optimize them all (unless you run exclusively Open Source 
> software and have *lots* of time on your hands). Optimize what you can 
> optimize, and leave the rest up to others...

I suppose, at my most altruistic, I would like to spare the root servers
the burden of my looking up non-existant domains.

Thanks for the info on the way you treat Windows hosts.

Regards,

Tom