My kingdom for a working DNS

[Alberto Molteni]

--- Earl Moore <lists at enfuego.us> wrote:
> You may want to check your dns server settings in
> /etc/resolv.conf you
> should have something like:
> 
> nameserver xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
> 
> If there is an entry there, try to ping it (your
> isp's dns server could be
> down).

The internet is working fine now thanks to a local DNS
server.

> 
> I've installed the caching nameserver and set the
> resolv.conf "nameserver"
> variable setting to my computer's ip.  If you need
> more details let me know.

I noticed all posts talked about caching DNS. I
haven't got the faintest idea of what it really is. I
figure it's a system which checks with an external DNS
(maybe the one in my resolv.conf now) and makes a copy
of the whole list on my computer. Then I should point
resolv.conf to 127.0.0.1. Is this right?

I have a few questions about this:

1) Does this speed up my internet connection?
2) Is it reliable? Supposing the DNS table changes,
does the copy on my HD change the first time I connect
to the net, or is there a manual procedure to update
it?
3) Brian Fahrlander said "Keep things simple to get
the functionality, THEN improve it to make it easier
on all those involved." Does that mean that caching
DNS reduces the load on the net?

Thanks for your time
Alberto

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