How much does a person need to know about DNS....

alysher · 2023-04-08 03:42:11

How much does a normal, typical, person need to know about DNS in order to keep their own home network relatively safe and secure? Would rough knowledge in concepts along with following 'common security practices' be enough, or do they need to know it like the back of their hand?

i ask this question because the wording on the wiki for systemd-resloved very much implies that a person needs to know and remember the detaiils, but never explains why or what could possibly happen if one doesn't - and it may be me but it sure seems like it expects that a person be a network engineer in order to understand anything - and to me it does not compute.

Ferdinand · 2023-04-08 05:08:01

Like with most things; if you follow the rabbit hole, it goes deep.

But the answer to your question is that you need to know:

What DNS is
What DNS software you use
How to configure that software

As for systemd-resolved (which I don't use), I'd say you'd get away good with reading that first, short bit in section 2 Configuration

Then, if something doesn't work properly, you need to follow deeper.

Don't be frustrated with the mass of information in the Wiki; it's there for when you need it - it's not today's homework

Last edited by Ferdinand (2023-04-08 05:11:17)

Lone_Wolf · 2023-04-08 10:23:18

systemd-resolved is very powerful and useful in certain usecases but overkill for others .
It shines in environments where multiple local networks are in use with differing dns needs (containers, Virtual machines, jails etc).

For the typical desktop / laptop user the most important question is : Do the dns services provided by my provider satisfy my needs ?
If yes, you don't need local dns implementations like systemd-resolved.

seth · 2023-04-08 13:56:00

the wiki for systemd-resloved very much implies that a person needs to know and remember the detaiils

No. The resolved wiki mostly talks about systemd-resolved's batshit crazy way to imply its configuration (depending on the config files type), how to configure various DNS-adjacent features and maybe briefly touches on he general resolving mechanism (resolved specific dbus, nss and dns)

It doesn't speak over or require any knowledge of DNS and wrt your other thread, you don't lack understanding of "details" but fundamentals.
Except that oc. you already know everything and probably that as well.

You want a locally caching DNS service if your LAN/WAN DNS is slow.
This would typically be resolved, dnsmasq or stubby (in contrast to bind/unbound as full DNS servers)

Trilby · 2023-04-08 15:38:42

alysher wrote:

How much does a normal, typical, person need to know about DNS

I rarely see myself as normal or typical ... but I am a person. And about all I know about DNS is what the letters stand for. I also know that I rely on someone else for running a DNS - currently my ISP. I've tinkered with using google's and cloudfare's but saw no performance improvement (and I couldn't care less whether the party that knows about my favorite flavors of porn are my ISP or google - as if either of them care).

alysher wrote:

... the wording on the wiki for systemd-resloved

The wording used in explaining systemd-<anything>d is guaranteed to be orders of magnitude more complicated than it needs to be and more complicated than anything related to the actual <anything> is. Systemd performs surprisingly well despite the tendency to take very very simple things and turn them into (in seth's fitting words) batshit crazy complex things.

Arch Linux

#1 2023-04-08 03:42:11

How much does a person need to know about DNS....

#2 2023-04-08 05:08:01

Re: How much does a person need to know about DNS....

#3 2023-04-08 10:23:18

Re: How much does a person need to know about DNS....

#4 2023-04-08 13:56:00

Re: How much does a person need to know about DNS....

#5 2023-04-08 15:38:42

Re: How much does a person need to know about DNS....

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