Annoying dynamic DNS updates (was Re: someone from attbi please contact me ...)

Tim Yocum tim at yocum.org
Sat Sep 27 23:56:07 UTC 2003


In previous mail, Sean Donelan said:
> Are you talking about the kitchen sink protocol called DNS, or trying
> to contact another ISP, or the sociological difficulties of educating
> the general public how to configure very complicated "personal" computers
> and software without making a mistake?

Unfortunately, telling end users to disable a default setting is
rather difficult these days. It's too bad that Microsoft hasn't
addressed this issue in the past several years that it has been
an enabled-by-default option.

> Why is dynamic DNS update enabled by default on some operating systems?

Back in beta days, the official explanation given was that the DNS
updating was a "value add" and that it would never be disabled as
a default as a courtesy to corporate customers. Furthermore, MSFT
folks have repeatedly said that the workaround is to simply configure
your nameserver to silently ignore the error logs.

Neat policy, eh? I would assume that the dynamic updating feature
is something easily toggled via a registry script; larger ISPs ought
to include this "fix" as an option with their installation CDs. Alas,
we get back to the ongoing debate: adjust user prefs for them, for
their own good... or get the vendor to cooperate?

- Tim



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