DNS: Not just for network nerds any more!

As recently as ten years ago, the inner workings of the Internet remained a mystery for all but the most foolhardy of people.    Fast forward today, and almost everyone has a mobile phone with Internet connectivity, a blog, a Facebook page, and maybe a dedicated website for themselves and family.

Along with any new technology comes the frustration when something doesn’t work right.  The Internet has become prevalent in nearly everything we do (who watches the Weather Channel now?  Anyone?) and is, in fact, a part of everyday life.   So then, a general understanding of “how things work” isn’t such a bad idea.   After all, you probably know how to check the oil on your car or truck–certainly fill it up with gas–even though you may not understand how the rest of the engine works.

Getting Started with DiG

Being that DNS is involved in nearly every bit of communication on the Internet, it’s a great place to start troubleshooting.   If a web site doesn’t come up, is it because that server is down?  Or is your DNS acting up…maybe theirs?   Well read on!  We’ll show you how to find out.

The primary tool to use in troubleshooting DNS is called DiG, short for the “DNS Information Groper” (seriously).  It is part of the BIND DNS Server software package.   Other than the slightly wonky name, its use as an investigative DNS tool is invaluable.   If you are using an Apple Mac or some type of Linux/Unix variant, DiG is likely already installed (on a Mac, open the Terminal to use it).   If you’re on a Windows host, you can download DiG for Windows, which is roughly the same tool compiled for the Microsoft platform.

Lets fire up dig and perform a quick query to determine if it’s working.   Open up your terminal or command line box, and type the following:

dig google.com. NS

After a very short period of time, you should get results which look similar to the following:

[bdowney@tlfmgt1 ~]$ dig google.com NS

; <<>> DiG 9.3.6-P1-RedHat-9.3.6-16.P1.el5 <<>> google.com NS
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 52302
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 4, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;google.com.            IN    NS

;; ANSWER SECTION:
google.com.        172781    IN    NS    ns2.google.com.
google.com.        172781    IN    NS    ns1.google.com.
google.com.        172781    IN    NS    ns3.google.com.
google.com.        172781    IN    NS    ns4.google.com.

;; Query time: 0 msec
;; SERVER: 172.16.65.90#53(172.16.65.90)
;; WHEN: Tue Sep 13 12:48:38 2011
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 100

So what exactly is this telling us?   First, the header shows the DiG version, as well as some basic information.   Above, the header  shows that we performed a Query, there was No Error, as well as your query’s ID.   Furthermore, it shows the flags passed to DiG when it was run (the ones printed are the default),  and finally the enumeration of queries and results returned.   In this case, we sent one query: NS, (“Give me the DNS servers for google.com”) and it returned four distinct answers  (ns1, 2, 3, and 4.google.com).  Finally the bottom portion shows how long the query took (pretty fast in our case!) as well as the DNS server that it obtained the information from.

In our next post, we’ll show you how to use dig to look up different types of DNS “records”, some of which will let you even troubleshoot email problems.

As the conversation continued, he had mentioned how the web hosting industry was now a commodity, and they were smashing all kinds of record profits by offering super cheap hosting and doing huge volume.   As he was talking, I kept glancing over his shoulder at their equipment:   Clone PC’s running hundreds of websites each,  $40 Linksys switches,  OfficeMax power strips, and twist ties.   Lots and lots of twist ties.

We bid farewall to each other and I made mental notes of what I found interesting:

• He didn’t mention his customers once.
• He took pride in how cheap their infrastructure was.   In fact, he made a joke about a noisy fan that had been failing for six months.
• His focus on their profits dominated the discussion

Though he seemed like a great guy I wouldn’t want to be his customer.   He may be offering something for a low price point, but he’s doing so at the expense of service and quality.    The Linux Fix has always believed that with great customer service comes success.   Our web hosting customers can’t succeed if we don’t provide quality equipment and service.   We want to be known for our service and support, not for our profit margin.

In fact we believe if we take care of our customers and clients, the business will take care of itself.   So far it has worked pretty well!