DNS - manually updated?

[shadow]

Are DNS servers manually updated?

thx

 

[tim0thy]

DNS servers can be manually updated or automatically updated. What in reference are you talking about exactly?

 

[shadow]

a discussion bearing on wins vs. dns servers and their differences - whether one of them was manually updated

 

[CBuxton]

WINS is dymanic, meaning that it updates itself. DNS is static, meaning that you have to make the entried yourself. The only exception being that if you are running Active Directory using Win2k, then you can use dymanic DNS.

 

[tim0thy]

thanks for answering the question heh

 

[shadow]

Buxton, can you expound on the manually update portion - how exactly does that work? Do I literally sit there with a list and type the corresponding IP# (216.151.100.101) for the name (www.anandtech.com)? Or can I import a list from the people who do all the address registering?

How does this process actually work?

thx

 

[LordOfAll]

Hmmm maybe I can help here. I think you are confusing dynamic with how DNS is propagated. Maybe an example will help. Lets say Anand puts up a new server up. He has to make an entry by hand in his DNS server for it. The next DNS server up the line compares notes, in a way, with Anand's DNS server and notices they don't match. That server adds anands new one to its list. And so on, and so on.... till all DNS servers know what Anand's new entry is. The difference is that someone somewhere had to make an entry. In a dynamic system the system itself notices a new server and makes its own entry, without human intervention.

 

[shadow]

someone must manually make a change to a DNS server somewhere in order for there to be a change.

however propogation is automatic

coolio

 

[shadow]

I thought however that DNS was controlled by an independant organization - domain registration that is, so wouldn't all propogation actually originate from their servers?

 

[CBuxton]

shadow-If by saying that "DNS was controlled by an independant organization" you actually mean the root DNS servers, then yes you are correct InterNic is the orgnization who runs the servers. Physically they are all across the globe so that DNS lookups happen quickly. Here is a site with a picture of the locations of the servers. There are only 12 worldwide (I think!) DNS Root Servers Anybody can actually host a DNS server though..your server address is recorded in the "main" database and is then associated with your domain name. Propagation time is somewhere around 24-36 hours for changes to get all the way through the root servers. Anybody feel free to fill in the cracks I've left! Hope this helps