Thread: Your own DNS

A quick way to resolve URL to IP addresses is to create your own DNS mechanism. This is extremely easy. Every computer has a file called hosts. On a UNIX/Linux machine, it resides in /etc directory. In Windows it resides in %SYSTEM_ROOT%\system32\drivers\etc.

(MAC users please update the location).

This is a simple text file and can be edited by any text editor.

I have attached a sample hosts.txt file from my own PC. All you have to do is:

a) download it
b) edit it to suit your requirements
c) rename it as hosts (without the .txt extension)
d) copy it to the desired location.

For big corporations like google , yahoo etc which have multiple servers for a single purpose eg email etc , is it possible to find ip of nearest/fastest server so that we can always get maximum speed ?

Google may have many servers but google[dot]com will result into one and only one IP address. The many servers are part of the same cluster.

yes, as just4kix said, even though there are many servers for a website, it has the same ip address.

Well this won't be of much help.

For example www[dot]google[dot]com

This is actually a server (a load balancer basically) which then redirects you to a server depending on your location and the load on the other servers . And this redirection will again need DNS requests, so unless you can save the IPs of all the backend servers you will still need to wait for DNS requests :glare:

Originally Posted by dnash

Well this won't be of much help.

For example www[dot]google[dot]com

This is actually a server (a load balancer basically) which then redirects you to a server depending on your location and the load on the other servers . And this redirection will again need DNS requests, so unless you can save the IPs of all the backend servers you will still need to wait for DNS requests :glare:

This does work. I guarantee that. The other day, BSNL's primary DNS was not working. But the secondary DNS was working. I was unable to surf the net because of this. But a ping to google, yahoo, etc. was working.

So I set the hosts table and internet started working for all the sites that were parts of my hosts table. Other sites would not open. After 30 minutes or so, the BSNL DNS server started working and then internet started working completely.

Trying it out right now....

Originally Posted by just4kix

Google may have many servers but google[dot]com will result into one and only one IP address. The many servers are part of the same cluster.

I have a utility.. and when i ran it i got this result..

Host Details by Name : google(dot)com
74.125.45.100
209.85.171.100
72.14.205.100

Host Details by Name : www(dot)google(dot)com
74.125.95.103
74.125.95.104
74.125.95.147
74.125.95.99

It shows multiple IP address for same domain name.

The same can be done in Windows environment by using Treewalk DNS.

Same domain, multiple IP : due to that fact that servers are scattered allover the globe. Whenever a query is rised, the nearest one is connected into.

I think think approch is flawed, as updating of DNS is not done!

i run my own DNS caching server with help of BIND

Treewalk DNS supports DNS updation too !!

BIND is an excellent option for linux.

ok i know u can do it but why do it?

will it speed up connections or what?

can u explain bro?

Originally Posted by manyudada

ok i know u can do it but why do it?

will it speed up connections or what?

can u explain bro?

DNS is used for domain name resolutions. It acts as a telephone directory. Like whenever u want to call someone, u consult the directory and find the number ultimately calling him. Likewise when an url is entered in the addressbar, then the DNS server is contacted first for corresponding IP address.

Instead of relying on the DNS server of your ISP u can make your own PC as the DNS server. So the timeframe required to contact the ISP's DNS will be reduced drastically.

Connections are not sped up. Minor changes can be noted in browsing experience. Thats all.

Hope it was clear

I know that DNS has no connection with download speed.
But when I tried this while I was downloading a torrent, my speed dropped by about 5 kB/s.
I had to revert to my isp's DNS.

Originally Posted by powerdoc

I know that DNS has no connection with download speed.
But when I tried this while I was downloading a torrent, my speed dropped by about 5 kB/s.
I had to revert to my isp's DNS.

U cannot change the dns settings on the fly. Ofcourse u can change it, but inorder to be implemented it has to be renewed/flushed. For that u need to stop the current data transfers, install the necessary software which facilitates DNS, restart the pc and resume downloading.

I mean I did all that.I think the reliance servers are not so congested coz its relatively new in Mumbai...thats why I might not have noticed any increase in browsing speed as well.

I wanted to ask creating our own dns is better or worse than open dns?

Originally Posted by Sumit020

I wanted to ask creating our own dns is better or worse than open dns?

Creating your own DNS is not recommended unless the number of sites that you want to access can be counted using your fingers !

Originally Posted by SledgeHammer

Creating your own DNS is not recommended unless the number of sites that you want to access can be counted using your fingers !

Ok... but how do i able to get IP address of site I visiting?

Originally Posted by Sumit020

Ok... but how do i able to get IP address of site I visiting?

You can easily get the IP address of the site by the command

ping <site url>

For example

Code:

C:\>ping www.google.com

Pinging www.google.com [209.85.153.104] with 32 bytes of data:
...
...

good one j4k.

thanks.this will help many.

Originally Posted by just4kix

You can easily get the IP address of the site by the command

ping <site url>

For example

Code:

C:\>ping www.google.com

Pinging www.google.com [209.85.153.104] with 32 bytes of data:
...
...

Really helpful tip j4k, thank you....

Interesting. Thanks for the share.

Originally Posted by just4kix

A quick way to resolve URL to IP addresses is to create your own DNS mechanism. This is extremely easy. Every computer has a file called hosts. On a UNIX/Linux machine, it resides in /etc directory. In Windows it resides in %SYSTEM_ROOT%\system32\drivers\etc.

(MAC users please update the location).

This is a simple text file and can be edited by any text editor.

I have attached a sample hosts.txt file from my own PC. All you have to do is:

a) download it
b) edit it to suit your requirements
c) rename it as hosts (without the .txt extension)
d) copy it to the desired location.

Downloading the file & editing with some more sites which i browse will open the website or will block the website as am using some other program to block some websites

Originally Posted by notteeking

Downloading the file & editing with some more sites which i browse will open the website or will block the website as am using some other program to block some websites

This process will neither open or block the website.

But just in case the real IP address of the website changes, then you may get "404" message.