Traffic Talk 1 Posted

I've started writing a new series for TechTarget SearchNetworkingChannel.com called Traffic Talk. The first edition is called DNS troubleshooting and analysis. I wrote it in early June, way before Dan Kaminsky's DNS revelations, so it has nothing to do with that affair. From the start of the article:

Welcome to the first edition of Traffic Talk, a regular SearchNetworkingChannel.com series for junior to intermediate networkers who troubleshoot business networks. In these articles we examine a variety of open source tools that expose and analyze different types of network traffic. In this edition we explore the Domain Name System (DNS), the mechanism that translates IP addresses to hostnames and back, plus a slew of other functions.

Comments

Grant Stavely said…
Nice overview of common dns tools Richard. I would have liked more background information on the tools - who maintains them and their availability - even if they were just hyperlinks in the text as it is.

One correction: MX records are optional (rfc974)- MTA's should treat an empty list of MX RR's as if it contained one RR, an MX RR with a preference value of 0 and a host name of the queried domain. I have no MX records on my vanity domain and have no problems receiving mail.
1:05 PM
Anonymous said…
if this will be placed in roads. this would be so difficult to follow. haha
3:53 AM
Anonymous said…
Richard~

Once again, you have proven invaluable. As timing would have it, I am in-process of taking a new security professional under my wing (for whatever that is worth) and have been using (among other items) your 2005 publication; "The Tao of Network Security Monitoring".

This new series that you are putting on TechTarget is a perfect companion-piece to the tools and processes that he is immersed in. The "junior to intermediate networkers" information is perfect for the learning-curve that we have given him. Great job!

If this keeps up, I'm going to have to buy you a drink (actually, I'm about an hour from you, +/-)

thanks again
~tcm
2:33 PM
Don Cicuto said…
Great explanation thanks for this article. I am looking forward for your next Traffic Talk edition
4:24 PM
Anonymous said…
As always, quite useful info.

BTW, you don't have to return the version of bind you're running. It's really nobody's business.

Here's what you get if you try it on an authoritative server I manage.

# dig @66.221.101.249 +short txt chaos version.bind
"nice try"

The response is the result of the following line in named.conf in the options section:

version "nice try";
11:05 AM
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