DNS and BIND

by Cricket Liu, Paul Albitz

DNS and BIND tells you everything you need to work with one of the Internet's fundamental building the distributed host information database that's responsible for translating names into addresses, routing mail to its proper destination, and even listing phone numbers with the new ENUM standard. This book brings you up-to-date with the latest changes in this crucial service.

The fifth edition covers BIND 9.3.2, the most recent release of the BIND 9 series, as well as BIND 8.4.7. BIND 9.3.2 contains further improvements in security and IPv6 support, and important new features such as internationalized domain names, ENUM (electronic numbering), and SPF (the Sender Policy Framework).

Whether you're an administrator involved with DNS on a daily basis or a user who wants to be more informed about the Internet and how it works, you'll find that this book is essential reading.

Topics

What DNS does, how it works, and when you need to use itHow to find your own place in the Internet's namespaceSetting up name serversUsing MX records to route mailConfiguring hosts to use DNS name serversSubdividing domains (parenting)Securing your name restricting who can query your server, preventing unauthorized zone transfers, avoiding bogus servers, etc.The DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC) and Transaction Signatures (TSIG)Mapping one name to several servers for load sharingDynamic updates, asynchronous notification of change to a zone, and incremental zone using nslookup and dig, reading debugging output, common problemsDNS programming using the resolver library and Perl's module

Genres: Technical, Reference, Technology, Computers, Computer Science, Programming, Nonfiction

937 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 8, 1992

Reviews

[Soham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely the go-to text for all things DNS. Even though the majority of this manual focuses largely on setting up DNS through BIND, it is the most comprehensive guide to learning, setting up, and managing DNS, regardless of which DNS server the reader is accustomed to.

Reading this text cover-to-cover is an ordeal, and not recommended for most readers. Instead, this should be used as a reference manual that can be returned to as necessary. Read the introduction for pointers on which chapters are best for a particular use case.

[Ignas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really detailed and gives lots of information. I was skimming it through and was easy to get and understand main ideas and principles.

[Dmitry · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book for an engineer, who wants to know how DNS works.

[Ahmed Shibani · Rating 4 out of 5]

Old but gold.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

"DNS and BIND" provides a thorough and comprehensive review of setting up a DNS server, even for a small home network.

[Alex Le · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the fundamental book that ALL web developers should read. It increases my knowledge of why and how the internet works significantly. The concept of DNS is explained thoroughly and every easy to understand. Once you get the basic (witch is the first 100 pages or so), the rest of the book can be used to learn more about how Bind works and administrative works.

As a web developer, what I learned from the first part of the book about DNS is invaluable. I can understand the network and be talking to IT/Networking guy with no hesitation about issues, i.e. why machine can't find one another, or why emails keep going to spam folder.

Invest in your knowledge, it's invaluable.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although much of this book was not immediately applicable for me, I needed the background to help me understand how the name serving on the Internet works. This is one of the most helpful , clear and even entertaining Oreilly books I have read. If you have to read technical books, at least they should not be more dry than necessary. This one delivers. I cannot believe I am such a nerd. I really loved the chapter on parenting. I almost forgot I was reading a technical book.

[finisherr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Critical for anyone working in desktop support, systems administration and systems engineering. It provides an introduction and gentle explanation of DNS and moves on to review common applications of DNS via Bind. I strongly recommend reading this for a general understanding and using the official Bind documentation as a reference for more detail.

[Jurvis · Rating 4 out of 5]

i've read (and reread) large portions of this book, but not the whole thing. i've used it to implement some novel uses of bind views with proper zone transfers. i'll definitely reach for it the next time i find my dns infrastructure wanting.

[Josh Readmore · Rating 4 out of 5]

DNS can at times be a perplexing beast. This is a very thick reference on the subject, and can help you learn about this surprisingly rich lore. This book is probably less helpful in a crisis - but who knows?

[Jack Repenning · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great example of the best of the O'Reilly tech books. This is actually the most-used work on my bookshelf, though mostly for the table in the back telling what country controls the top-level domains (so I know where my spam is coming from ;-)

[Andrew Edelstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent guide to the subject of DNS. Many "systems administrators" need to read this book, as they are totally lost when it comes to DNS, which is crucial to keeping your systems running smoothly.

[George Silva · Rating 5 out of 5]

great book. gives good understanding of the foundations on internet and some tcpip protocol.

not only that, teaches everything there is to know about bind in several versions. easy language and another great oreilly book.

[-uht! · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tis book really gave me a broad understanding of how the web really works. It was cool to understand the historyf how DNS was developed.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was the editor for this book, not the author. This is a classic, though. One of the best books I've ever worked on.

This edition is out of date. Get the 5th edition.

[Laurence · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is the gold standard and I think it could have been written by one of my colleagues, Tan. Yes, when a server had issues recently he rebuilt the DNS settings from scratch.

[Hector]

No comments

[Daniel Yakiwchuk · Rating 5 out of 5]

The definitive guide to BIND. Many different revisions of this book have called my sysadmin bookshelf home for years.

[Puercozon · Rating 5 out of 5]

La mera biblia de DNS.

[Laurent]

A great read.
I almost met Cricket Liu when I interviewed for a company where he was CTO... but in the end, I chose to stay in Vancouver a couple more years.

[Terranaut · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've lent out my dog-eared and beverage-stained copy (signed) like a bankers pen -- and I've bothered to retrieve it each time. how could I not recommend it?

[Neil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cricket's speaks clearly about a sometimes obtuse topic. I completed this book but it's one of those books that you can read cover to cover and use as a reference.

[TK Keanini · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is so important to understand. This book is known as the Grasshopper book.

[Zack]

This was a little over my head, but I continue to use it sometimes as a reference.

[Robert]

A real pot boiler!

[Dwight Walker]

useful for cloud hosting business I am developing