Possible DNS Problems

[Matthew Seaman]

On Wed, Apr 14, 2004 at 08:43:53PM +0000, Travis Troyer wrote:
> I am running FreeBSD 5.2.1-Release on two systems, a server that acts as a NAT 
> Gateway for my cable service, and a client.  When trying to load various 
> websites on the client machine, I get a delay, usually about 25 seconds, 
> during which Mozilla will tell me it's resolving the hostname.  I also get 
> the same situation with Konqueror or lynx.  It only happens on certain sites, 
> for example, Bankone.com.  With loading Bankone.com, after the homepage 
> initially loads, I can load any page on the site without problems.  Using 
> this same system, and dual booting into Windows, I find that I can load these 
> sites with no problem, leading me to believe that it is a configuration 
> problem with my FreeBSD installation; however, I can not figure out what the 
> problem is.  I would really appreciate any help in this matter.

You could well be right -- a lot of DNS servers out there do not
respond correctly (or even at all) to queries for AAAA or A6 records.
You can confirm if that is the case by using tcpdump to show you what
DNS traffic your system is generating as you browse around.

This is a case of FreeBSD users being penalised for running a properly
standards compliant OS by stupid service providers who are unable to
install standards compliant DNS servers with support for RR types
introduced getting on for 10 years ago now.  Even worse, DNS servers
that don't return any response to such a request, which forces your
system to wait for the whole 30s of the DNS timeout.

	Cheers,

	Matthew

-- 
Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil.                       26 The Paddocks
                                                      Savill Way
PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey         Marlow
Tel: +44 1628 476614                                  Bucks., SL7 1TH UK
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