The uncertainty of measuring the DNS

https://blog.apnic.net/2018/07/18/the-uncertainty-of-measuring-the-dns/

by known • 8 years ago

46 8 8 years ago

blog.apnic.net

mirimir• 8 years ago

That is a mind-blowing article. I mean, I know the basic model, and I could imagine how chaotic stuff could get. But I had no idea that it was that bad.

This especially amazes me:

Our experiences with DNS measurement using unique timestamped labels and an online ad distribution system to see the queries from end users appears to support this observation — around 40% of queries seen at our authoritative servers reflect an original query that was made days, months or even years in the past, something we’ve termed DNS Zombies.

allenz• 8 years ago

That is surprisingly high. Presumably the queries weren't actually made years ago. There are many possible explanations: incorrect DNS clients, incorrect system clocks, automated scripts scraping into a DNS database, misconfigured embedded/IoT devices, etc.

jacobush• 8 years ago

But if they timestamped the labels?

kqr2• 8 years ago

DNS sounds so simple when described as "servers in a hierarchy that tell you either what other server to ask, or which host has a particular hostname".

My perspective shift was when I talked to someone who worked at NetNod with operating i.root-servers.net: he spoke about DNS the way people speak about distributed key–value stores. Except this was invented over 30 years ago. And services nearly the entire internet. I don't remember how long he'd been working with it, but he absolutely could not wrap his head around the fact that it still works. That it hasn't broken down entirely was apparently something he saw as a little miracle.

Facetiously, I have started thinking of DNS as the only truly web scale NoSQL.

1996• 8 years ago

You should look at TCP over DNS. It has some uses.

Now SQL over DNS TXT values, that would be nice!

yencabulator• 8 years ago

The linked https://blog.apnic.net/2016/04/04/dns-zombies/ is also a good read.

The uncertainty of measuring the DNS

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