1 Jul
2009
1 Jul
'09
1:31 p.m.
Serving the IP of the host best able to serve your user does not sound
like a fringe requirement to me. :)
I have http://static.natalian.org/ mirrored at 67.205.53.240
(California) and 88.198.3.35 (Germany). It's just my personal pictures
and videos. Unsurprisingly video playback [1] from California is a
poor user experience from the UK. Germany is better. So I am looking
for a free personal (low requests) GEO DNS service that serves the IP
of the server closest to my user.
It sounds like a bit of a failing to me of DNS not to be able to
supply this feature via TTL or some clever routing tables. Do I
_really_ need to host my own DNS with a Maxmind hack?
Kind regards,
[1] http://natalian.org/archives/2009/06/30/HTML5_video_porn/
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Andy Smith via RT <support(a)rt.bitfolk.com>
Date: 2009/7/1
Subject: Re: [bitfolk.com #1624] DNS service
To: hendry(a)webconverger.com
Hi Kai,
On Wed, Jul 01, 2009 at 01:06:31PM +0000, Kai Hendry via RT wrote:
2009/7/1 Andy Smith via RT
<support(a)rt.bitfolk.com>om>:
When a client's resolver asks for the list of NS servers for the
domain, the list will be returned then it will pick one at random.
Geographic DNS load balancing in general works by having a more
complicated DNS server work out which of its possible answers is
most likely to be closest to the IP of the resolver that is asking.
Most third party DNS services (including BitFolk's) won't support
this because it's a rather fringe requirement.
In general that won't work. That is, it will
be largely random.
Hmm, I thought DNS had some magic way to resolve to the nearest DNS
server with TTL or something. So I need some sort GEO DNS service? Can you recommend
one?
http://serverfault.com/questions/30567/geo-dns-providers
I'm afraid I can't because I haven't needed one for a long time.
Many years ago when I used to run an IRC network with a need for
this, we developed a module for PowerDNS which would do this based
on MaxMind's free database of IP network -> geographic location.
The primary developer of this, Mark Bergsa, went on to work for the
Wikimedia Foundation and I believe that Wikipedia now use this
solution. So maybe that would be worth looking into.
It's a good question for the users mailing list.
Cheers,
Andy
--
http://bitfolk.com/ -- No-nonsense VPS hosting
"What should one say after making love? ``Thank you'' seems too much.
``I'm sorry'' - somehow not enough." -- The League Against Tedium
1 Jul
1 Jul
1:48 p.m.
Hi Kai,
On Wed, Jul 01, 2009 at 02:31:07PM +0100, Kai Hendry wrote:
Serving the IP of the host best able to serve your
user does not sound
like a fringe requirement to me. :)
I don't think it's a service that a significant percentage of
BitFolk's customer base would appreciate -- even if free would not
appreciate slowing down of progress elsewhere.
I have http://static.natalian.org/ mirrored at
67.205.53.240
(California) and 88.198.3.35 (Germany). It's just my personal pictures
and videos. Unsurprisingly video playback [1] from California is a
poor user experience from the UK. Germany is better. So I am looking
for a free personal (low requests) GEO DNS service that serves the IP
of the server closest to my user.
It sounds like a bit of a failing to me of DNS not to be able to
supply this feature via TTL or some clever routing tables. Do I
_really_ need to host my own DNS with a Maxmind hack?
DNS was not designed for this. Some regard "stupid DNS tricks"
involving DNS masters that serve incoherent data to be a gross hack.
People like Paul Vixie for example. The big boys do it with anycast
instead (very much beyond the scope of people with just VPSes
unfortunately)
You can do it with geo dns though and I probably still would if I
needed to.
My mistake below with Mark's name was just a typo BTW: it should be
Mark Bergsma.
http://doc.powerdns.com/geo.html
The "More details" link looks very familiar. :)
Cheers,
Andy
Many years ago when I used to run an IRC network with
a need for
this, we developed a module for PowerDNS which would do this based
on MaxMind's free database of IP network -> geographic location.
The primary developer of this, Mark Bergsa, went on to work for the
Wikimedia Foundation and I believe that Wikipedia now use this
solution. So maybe that would be worth looking into.
--
http://bitfolk.com/ -- No-nonsense VPS hosting
"What should one say after making love? ``Thank you'' seems too much.
``I'm sorry'' - somehow not enough." -- The League Against Tedium
10:57 p.m.
On Wed, 1 Jul 2009 14:31:07 +0100, Kai Hendry <hendry(a)webconverger.com>
wrote:
It sounds like a bit of a failing to me of DNS not to
be able to
supply this feature via TTL or some clever routing tables. Do I
_really_ need to host my own DNS with a Maxmind hack?
DNS is not designed for this sort of routing decision making. If you're
worried about not being able to effectively serve your users across the
globe, then you should invest in either a content delivery network
(probably a preexisting one such as Akamai or FreeCDN), or some sort of
global load balancing solution.
Failing that, a selection box on the website to select a server would
probably work. I guess most people are able to work out for themselves if
they're closer to either the US or Germany.
Cheers,
Jon
11:48 p.m.
Hello Kai,
On Wed, Jul 01, 2009 at 02:31:07PM +0100, Kai Hendry wrote:
Serving the IP of the host best able to serve your
user does not sound
like a fringe requirement to me. :)
Welcome to our world.
I have http://static.natalian.org/ mirrored at
67.205.53.240
(California) and 88.198.3.35 (Germany). It's just my personal pictures
and videos. Unsurprisingly video playback [1] from California is a
poor user experience from the UK. Germany is better. So I am looking
for a free personal (low requests) GEO DNS service that serves the IP
of the server closest to my user.
It sounds like a bit of a failing to me of DNS not to be able to
supply this feature via TTL or some clever routing tables. Do I
_really_ need to host my own DNS with a Maxmind hack?
DNS was conceived as a simple replacement for a /etc/hosts file that was
distributed via FTP. Don't be surprised if it doesn't do exactly what
you want it to without some effort on your part.
What you need is a Global Server Load Balancing (GSLB) service.
Unfortunately I don't know of any people who provide such a service
cheaply. Most people who want to load balance between continents have
some sort of budget.
There are some flaws, not least the fact that you can't actually tell
where on the planet someone is by the IP address of their resolver, but
it works fairly well.
Cheers,
Graham
--
Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not
tried it.
-- Don Knuth
5 Jul
5 Jul
12:01 p.m.
Hello,
On Wed, Jul 01, 2009 at 01:48:29PM +0000, Andy Smith wrote:
Debian doing something similar with a patched bind9:
http://dsa.debian.org/dsablog/2009/06/Setting_up_GeoDNS_for_security.debian…
I think I'd still rather use a packaged powerdns than a patched
bind9...
Cheers,
Andy
--
http://bitfolk.com/ -- No-nonsense VPS hosting
The optimum programming team size is 1.
Has
Jurassic Park taught us nothing?
-- pfilandr
12:16 p.m.
On Wed, Jul 01, 2009 at 02:31:07PM +0100, Kai Hendry wrote:
Serving the IP of the host best able to serve your
user does not sound
like a fringe requirement to me. :)
I have http://static.natalian.org/ mirrored at 67.205.53.240
(California) and 88.198.3.35 (Germany). It's just my personal pictures
and videos. Unsurprisingly video playback [1] from California is a
poor user experience from the UK. Germany is better. So I am looking
for a free personal (low requests) GEO DNS service that serves the IP
of the server closest to my user.
It sounds like a bit of a failing to me of DNS not to be able to
supply this feature via TTL or some clever routing tables. Do I
_really_ need to host my own DNS with a Maxmind hack?
Kind regards,
[1] http://natalian.org/archives/2009/06/30/HTML5_video_porn/
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Andy Smith via RT <support(a)rt.bitfolk.com>
Date: 2009/7/1
Subject: Re: [bitfolk.com #1624] DNS service
To: hendry(a)webconverger.com
Hi Kai,
On Wed, Jul 01, 2009 at 01:06:31PM +0000, Kai Hendry via RT wrote:
Wouldn't it be much simpler just to do what a lot of sites do, and setup a
"main" webserver that does the geo-ip lookup and redirects as needed to a
seperate subdomain
For example.
www.example.com -> www.uk.example.com
2009/7/1 Andy Smith via RT
<support(a)rt.bitfolk.com>om>:
When a client's resolver asks for the list of NS servers for the
domain, the list will be returned then it will pick one at random.
Geographic DNS load balancing in general works by having a more
complicated DNS server work out which of its possible answers is
most likely to be closest to the IP of the resolver that is asking.
Most third party DNS services (including BitFolk's) won't support
this because it's a rather fringe requirement.
In general that won't work. That is, it will
be largely random.
Hmm, I thought DNS had some magic way to resolve to the nearest DNS
server with TTL or something. So I need some sort GEO DNS service? Can you
recommend one?
http://serverfault.com/questions/30567/geo-dns-providers
I'm afraid I can't because I haven't needed one for a long time.
Many years ago when I used to run an IRC network with a need for
this, we developed a module for PowerDNS which would do this based
on MaxMind's free database of IP network -> geographic location.
The primary developer of this, Mark Bergsa, went on to work for the
Wikimedia Foundation and I believe that Wikipedia now use this
solution. So maybe that would be worth looking into.
It's a good question for the users mailing list.
5418
days inactive
5422
days old
5 comments
5 participants
participants (5)
-
Andy Smith -
Graham Bleach -
Jon Fautley -
Kai Hendry -
Martin Meredith