DNS and BIND eBook: Cricket Liu, Paul Albitz: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

Amazon.co.uk Review

DNS and BIND is an explanation of the glorious Domain Name System (DNS). DNS takes familiar Internet network and machine names (such as "Amazon.co.uk") and converts them to Internet Protocol (IP) addresses (such as "208.35.218.15") that are meaningful to routers and so useful for identifying the machine you want to reach. What's amazing is, DNS enables someone in Germany to refer, by name, to a computer in Mongolia even if no one in Germany has ever accessed the distant machine before. It's pretty much self-configuring too: no human effort in Germany is necessary to make the Mongolian machine reachable by name. DNS and BIND explains how DNS works better than any other piece of documentation, printed or otherwise. The work of Paul Albitz and Cricket Liu, now in its fourth revision, has long been considered a classic among systems administrators and network architects, particularly those with a UNIX bent.

The fourth edition is mainly an update: The authors have added coverage of incremental and conditional zone transfer with BIND's new NOTIFY features, as well as of Transaction Signatures (TSIG) and DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC). Sections on firewalling and DNS for IPv6 addresses have been expanded, and Albitz and Liu maintain their impeccable style that combines text and illustrative listings into an educational whole throughout. --David Wall

Topics covered: The Domain Name System (DNS) and how it's implemented by BIND (through versions 8.2.3 and 9.1.0), how to set up BIND, how to configure MX records for mail service, parent and child domains, NOTIFY, and DNS security.

Amazon.co.uk Review

This is the definitive book on the Domain Name System (DNS), the powerful scheme that facilitates the translation of English-like domain names (www.amazon.com) into computer-comprehensible Internet Protocol (IP) addresses (208.216.182.15). If you run a DNS server of any kind, particularly under Unix, you need to have this book on hand.

This book's early chapters give a view of DNS from high altitude, explaining basic concepts such as domains, name servers and name resolution. From there, the authors proceed on a more practical tack, presenting specific instructions for setting up your own domain and DNS server using BIND. The authors then tell you what to do as your domain grows and you need to add more machines, subdomains, and greater throughput capacity. They also talk a lot about nslookup and C programming with the various DNS and BIND libraries. Administrators will find the chapter on BIND debugging output particularly helpful. Here, the authors translate BIND's mysterious error messages and offer specific strategies for fixing and optimising the program. This edition covers BIND 8.1.2, but pays lots of attention to older versions that are still in wide use (4.8.3 and 4.9). The authors are careful to note differences among the versions. --David Wall, Amazon.com

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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

An Excellent Textbook for the Unix Professional 24 May 2001

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

I bought this book in order to understand and sort out the problems with the DNS setup of a large customer running multiple Unix systems. While it was a one-off purchase for a single job rather than part of any ongoing task I feel it was money very well spent. Whilst readable it is clearly a solid technical textbook aimed at people who do this for a living rather than a popular guide. For someone who just wants to learn about how the Internet works out of curiosity it would be pointless to buy this book. Ideally you need a fair knowledge of such things as Unix and TCP/IP to get the best out of this book, but if like me you do this to pay the mortgage and put food in front of the children, then this book is a must have for the low down on BIND and DNS.

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

Probably the best DNS book out there 9 Oct 2000

Many people refer to this book as the DNS bible, it takes you right from the very beginning building up your knowledge of DNS and continues to give all the information you need to get a bind server running. Of course there couldn't be a better pair of authors to write this book, as of course you will discover they are responsible (with the ISC) for maintaining bind. I would recommend this to anyone working with or setting up DNS servers on any flavour of UNIX.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

The de-facto DNS book 21 Mar 2000

Remember DNS is pretty dry, especially if you just learning it from a book. That said, this book is pretty much the std one to go for if you want to learn about DNS. It is clear and concise whilst still covering topics in a detail level that will suit 99% of DNS admins.

If you're looking for a book on DNS that will help you from starting out to becoming "Mr. Classless in.addr.arpa" buy it.

just one word "perfect"

Not being an IT pro, I am kind of average joe who when in need of something new to learn googles for it first or reads forums to get an impression of the scale. Read more

Published on 7 May 2008 by Al

THE BIBLE OF DNS!

When people hear about DNS, they go, "Eh, what?" - DNS is very important to the Internet and anyone a I.T professional should consider buying a copy and reading it. Read more

Published on 20 April 2008 by D. Matthews

A classic of the Internet age!

This is now my 3rd copy of this book, I'm reviewing the 5th edition that I have just upgraded to. There isn't too much to say about this book really, if you are going to be... Read more

Published on 28 Dec 2007 by faikeath

A must have book for administrators of DNS

This book has everything for the novice upto expert level. This is one book I strongly recomend for those who use DNS on Unix/Linux. Read more

Published on 23 Oct 2000 by J. East

3 C's: Clear, Concise, Comprehensive

Well, that says it all, really. If you need to set up name lookup services with any more complexity than editing /etc/hosts, then this book is for you. Read more

Published on 9 July 2000

The Internet Classic...

This is the classic guide to one of the core functions of the Internet. If you run name servers, this is the reference yoú should read. Read more

Published on 8 Jun 2000

A Comprehensive Guide to the founding principles of the WWW

Every person who has contact with web based administration must have this book. It's saved me many hours work and I wouldn't be without it.

Published on 8 April 2000 by Mr Tim S Parkin

the way to understand DNS

If you are connected to the internet and need to understand, plan, use , bla bla bla bla ...

Buy this book right now, it you help you to dive into DNS, the growth of internet... Read more

Published on 5 Nov 1998

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