DNS on Windows 2000 - Softcover

Matt Larson; Cricket Liu

3.86

7 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0596002300 ISBN 13: 9780596002305

Publisher: O'Reilly Media, 2001

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DNS on Windows 2000 is a special Windows-oriented edition of the classic DNS and BIND. The Domain Name System (DNS) is one of the Internet's fundamental building blocks: the distributed host information database that's responsible for translating names into addresses, routing mail to its proper destination, and many other services. As the preface says, if you're using the Internet, you're already using DNS--even if you don't know it.Besides covering general issues like installing, setting up, and maintaining the server, DNS on Windows 2000 tackles those specific to the Windows environment: integration between DNS and Active Directory, conversion from BIND to the Microsoft DNS server, and registry settings. You'll also acquire a grounding in:

Security issues
System tuning
Caching
Zone change notification
Troubleshooting
Planning for growth

If you're a Windows administrator, DNS on Windows 2000 is the operations manual you need for working with DNS every day; if you're a Windows user who simply wants to take the mystery out of the Internet, this book is a readable introduction to the Internet's architecture and inner workings.Topics include:

What DNS does, how it works, and when you need to use it
How to find your own place in the Internet's namespace
Setting up name servers
Integrating Active Directory with DNS
Dynamic updates, storing zone information in Active Directory, and incremental zone transfers
Using MX records to route mail
Configuring hosts to use name servers
Subdividing domains (parenting)
Securing your name server: preventing unauthorized zone transfers
Mapping one name to several servers for load sharing
Troubleshooting: using nslookup, diagnosing common problems

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Review:

That Microsoft likes to implement network services in its own way--some would call this innovation; others would say it's reinventing the wheel--is news to no one. The folks from Redmond have built Domain Name Service (DNS) capability into Windows 2000 Server, and sure enough, the implementation differs from all those that preceded it. There's nothing wrong with it. It's just unique, and DNS on Windows 2000 explains how. What's more, the book explains DNS generally, in both global and organizational terms. For that reason, the authors are correct to point out in their introduction that this is essentially the classic DNS and BIND (which Cricket Liu, one of this book's authors, also cowrote) for Windows 2000 instead of Unix.

This book does a good job of tying together all aspects of DNS provision for a network administrator. It's a complex undertaking, since DNS involves not only elaborately inter-operating machines in the organizational network, but also interactions with other networks' services and global authorities. Liu and Matt Larson explain the whole system, from starting and stopping a DNS service under Windows 2000 to establishing an organization's namespace in the global hierarchy. They rely on diagrams to clarify DNS conceptually, screen shots to set readers straight on how to configure servers, and plenty of annotated nslookup runs to demonstrate correct and incorrect server behavior. This book's your best bet if you need to implement DNS on a Windows 2000 network and have either no knowledge of DNS, or knowledge that's rooted in Unix implementations. --David Wall

Topics covered: The Domain Name System (DNS) in general, and means of implementing it under Microsoft Windows 2000 Server specifically. There are specific instructions for setting up Microsoft DNS Server instances in a number of configurations, and advice on how to set up zones, MX records, and subdomains. All aspects of the interaction between Windows 2000 and DNS--notably Active Directory--receive attention.

About the Author:

Matt Larson started Acme Byte & Wire, a company specializing in DNS consulting and training, with Cricket Liu in January 1997. Previously, he worked for Hewlett-Packard, first as Cricket's successor as hp.com hostmaster, then as a consultant in HP's Professional Services Organization. Matt graduated from Northwestern University in 1992 with two degrees: a bachelor of arts in computer science and a bachelor of music in church music/organ performance. He lives in Bethesda, Maryland, with his wife, Sonja Kahler, and their two pugs. In his spare time he enjoys playing the 10-rank pipe organ in his house and flying light airplanes. Cricket worked for five and a half years at Hewlett-Packard's Corporate Network Services, where he ran hp.com, one of the largest corporate domains in the world, and helped design the HP Internet's security architecture. Cricket left HP in 1997 to start his own company, Acme Byte & Wire, with his friend and co-author Matt Larson. Network Solutions acquired Acme Byte & Wire in June of 2000, and then subsequently, Network Solutions merged with VeriSign. Cricket became Director of DNS Product Management of the merged company, helping determine which new DNS-related products VeriSign would offer.

Cricket Liu matriculated at the University of California's Berkeley campus, that great bastion of free speech, unencumbered Unix, and cheap pizza. He joined Hewlett-Packard after graduation and worked for HP for nine years. Cricket began managing the hp.com zone after the Loma Prieta earthquake forcibly transferred the zone's management from HP Labs to HP's Corporate Offices (by cracking a sprinkler main and flooding Labs' computer room). Cricket was hostmaster@hp.com for over three years, and then joined HP's Professional Services Organization to cofound HP's Internet Consulting Program. Cricket left HP in 1997 to form Acme Byte & Wire, a DNS consulting and training company, with his friend (and now co-author) Matt Larson. Network Solutions acquired Acme in June 2000, and later the same day merged with VeriSign. Cricket worked for a year as Director of DNS Product Management for VeriSign Global Registry Services. Cricket joined Men & Mice, an Icelandic company specializing in DNS software and services, in September, 2001. He is currently their Vice President, Research & Development. Cricket, his wife, Paige, and their son, Walt, live in Colorado with two Siberian Huskies, Annie and Dakota. On warm weekend afternoons, you'll probably find them on the flying trapeze or wakeboarding behind Betty Blue.

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