Every time you receive e-mail or access a web page, you use the Domain Name System (DNS). That makes DNS critical to the operation of the global Internet. However, this book is not a theoretical work about global concepts. It is about practical, real-world solutions. Every one of those requests originate from a DNS that supports a group of local users, and every one of them is finally answered by a DNS server that may support a high volume commercial web site or a modest personal mail server. This book is about understanding, configuring, diagnosing, and securing these local DNS servers that do the vital work.
I have been in the communications business as a programmer, designer, and systems administrator for over 30 years. Many years ago, when I set up my first pair of DNS servers, I wasted time searching for some practical advice and sensible descriptions of the theory involved. I found neither. I completed the DNS rite-of-passage—this book was born from that experience.
DNS is a complex subject, but it is also unnecessarily cloaked in mystery and mythology. This book, I hope, is a sensible blend of practical advice and theory. You can treat it as a simple paint-by-numbers guide to every task from a simple caching DNS to the most complex secure DNS (DNSSEC) implementations. But the background information is here for those times when you not only need to know what to do, but you also need to know why you are doing it and how can you modify the process to meet your unique needs.
Yours sincerely,
Ron Aitchison
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