CTWUG DNS

What is DNS

DNS (Domain Name System WIKIPedia) is used instead of IP's. Most of the time if there is only a couple of IP's its easier to use IP's instead of DNS, but the bigger the network, the more IP's you have to remember, and then its easier to remember DNS names ie: http://wind.ctwug.za.net or http://wiki.ctwug.za.net

Another benefit using DNS is that you can have multiple virtual servers on the same IP. wind.ctwug.za.net and wiki.ctwug.za.net both runs on macgyver.ctwug.za.net

CTWUG DNS Servers

The CTWUG DNS Server is: 172.18.1.1

This IP actually runs on a number of systems scattered all over the WUG, with the primary DNS server hosted on a VPS in the cloud.

This IP (172.18.1.1) gets used for NTP as well.

How CTWUG DNS Works

The Primary DNS server is hosted by vps.co.za on a Virtual Private Server and has a static public IP. This is reqruied to run a DNS Server.

There are also secondary servers helping dns.ctwug.za.net with internet side queries.

The CTWUG DNS Servers gets their DNS Zone information directly from dns.ctwug.za.net.

When someone adds new IP addresses on WIND, dns.ctwug.za.net gets notified. dns.ctwug.za.net then updates its own zone file and notifies the mirrors that are scattered around the WUG.

When these servers receive the notification, they will do an incremental transfer from dns.ctwug.za.net.

If you are interested in hosting a CTWUG DNS mirror using a Raspberry Pi at your node, have a look at theforum post here.

Use CTWUG DNS

Refer to DNS Setup on how to use CTWUG DNS on your Computer.