>As a general question --- what is ment by the "top level dns server"
>??? I assume this means the general internet dns server.
>
>How is the "top level dns server" identified ??? does it have a "well
>known" address ??
AKA the "root" nameservers. There are 13 of them, named A.ROOT-SERVERS.NET through
M.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. They can be found in the cache file pointed to in most any Unix
box' /etc/named.boot file. In our case with STN, it's named.ca in the directory
mentioned on a previous line, /etc/named (so the file is /etc/named/named.ca).
They are *fairly* well defined, but they do change once in a while.
I just checked, and the ftp site mentioned in STN's copy of named.ca has the same
file, so our STN (2.1.3 anyway) is up to date root-server wise (last update 22 AUG
1997).
The STN docs mention your own ISP's nameserver is generally a faster response, which
makes sense as it's closer (less hops). The exception might be an ISP's poorly
maintained DNS server/network. The way DNS works, if the ISP's server you enter fails
to respond, after a delay (not sure how long), it will begin trying the root
nameservers in named.ca.
I.e. (for network geeks), the entry in this field is entered in the named.boot file as
a forwarder, which is the server tried before those in the root cache file (named.ca
on STN). The named.ca root servers will be the next in line if it fails.
pjb
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