[thelist] [Fwd: Los Angeles Web Spinners Meeting This Sat. - Topic: DNS]

[Daniel J. Cody]

FYI for those of you in the LA area looking to learn a bit about DNS..

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Los Angeles Web Spinners Meeting This Sat. - Topic: DNS

Web Spinners October 6th Saturday Meeting Announcement.
Repost freely.
URL to Monthly Announcement http://peterbenjamin.com/webspinners/
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    Topic: What's in a Domain Name

    Speaker: Peter Benjamin and Daniel Culbertson

    Date: Saturday, October 6th
    Time: 10:00 am to 2:00 pm,
          Lunch at noon for 45 minutes.

    Location: Westside Pavillon Mall, Community Room C
              3rd Floor (top) - West End of Mall
              10800 West Pico Blvd, Corner of Westwood Avenue

    Costs: $3 admission (Handouts are $1 to $2 when available)

    Topic: What's in a Domain Name

This seminar will be a fast overview of the many pieces
of the DNS puzzle from the viewpoints of an end user,
an administrator and a domain name owner.  There will
be nuts and bolts for setting up a computer with Internet
access, IP stack software, security concerns, and local
DNS cache service pros and cons.

The talk will start with local domain name service (DNS) that
you might run on your local computer in cache only mode, or
as an authoritative name server supporting multiple domain
names, www prefixes, 3rd and 4th level domain names (no sub
domain configurations), and MX mail records.  An overview
of common BIND named.conf 8.x directives will be given.

But there is more to DNS than running it locally.  What happens
at your ISP?  Why do they not want DNS running on your computer?
What about secondary service and dynamic IP numbers?  Setting
up a secondary slave and tertiary secondaries will be covered.
The IP/MAC network layers will be touched upon to serve as
the foundation of how DNS resolution occurs.

The Verisign Global Registry Service and the host DNS
tables is the top level 'root' database where it all
starts.  A quick briefing of what this Global Registry
Service is and how it supplies your DNS with root level
service, and directly points to your name server to
greatly speed up name resolution and reduce related
net traffic.  Plus the SDK software available to anyone
that the other Registrars use to read and write to the
Global Registry will be touched upon.

Until recently, Network Solutions had a monopoly on domain
name registration.  Now, however, many different registrars
compete for your business.  The new registrars vary widely
on price, customer service and, most importantly, on the
legal rights your registration gives you.  For example, some

registrars reserve the right to revoke your domain name for
any reason.  Others prohibit you from changing to a new registrar.
Some even severely restrict how you may use your domain.  All
of this is information you must have to choose a registrar that
meets your needs and protects your rights.

And the seminar will wrap up with news about the new domain names,
the time schedule, the bidding structure to reserve your name,
and whether getting your name with all the top level names is
worth it and why and why not.


Topics:

What is Domain Name Service (DNS)
   Local DNS on your computer
   DNS provided by your ISP
   DNS provided by your Web host provider
   DNS resolution process
   DNS software
     ISC.org BIND - named.conf configuration file
     djbdns.org - a collection of DNS tools by Dan Bernstein.
     Windows DNS
   What is an IP number?
   What is a MAC number?

Verisign (Network Solutions-NSI) "Global Registry Service"
   The Global Registry Top Level Root Service
      (2LD only: *.com, *.net, *.org)
   The Global Registry DNS Host Table
      (name servers only: ns1.*.com)
   The New Registrars - Two types
     Registrars directly accredited by ICANN
     Affiliated with ICANN and "wholesale"
     Domain name registration services:
       CORE and TUCOWS (OpenSRS)
   DomainNameBuyersGuide.com rankings by Legal, Price, and Overall
   Low Prices: Gandi ($12 USD), Dotster ($15), Tucows (OpenSRS) ($20)
   Other Country Registrars http://www.iana.org/cctld/cctld-whois.htm

New Top Level Domain Names
   Right now get .biz .info
   More are available next year

What you need to know about the
   Domain Name Resolution Dispute Process

References to Other Organizations:
   ICANN.org - Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
   IANA.org - Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
   IETF.org - Internet Engineering Task Force
   W3C.org (w3.org) - World Wide Web Consortium


Peter Benjamin's Biography:

Peter Benjamin is a freelance consulting Internet
Technology Scientist.  mailto:pete at peterbenjamin.com
He programmed for 12 years on CADAM, an IBM company,
on IBM 360 to 3090 and Unix Apollo, SunOs, IBM AIX
workstations.  Other unixes he has used are PDP-10,
HP/UX, VAX, Esix, FreeBSD, OpenBSD and Linux starting
with Slackware 0.96.  He programmed on 2 Virtual Reality
CD ROM games.  His focus for the last 7 years is web
CGI programming.  His clients included NEC, Ray Charles,
MTV, Star Radio 98.7, Luckman, and Global Van Lines.
His services include office legacy database to web
integrated solutions (current clients are Bodhi Tree
Books and Printing Industries Association), e-commerce,
web design and CGI application solutions specializing
in user interface design.  He started the Web Spinners


http://peterbenjamin.com/webspinners and continues to
assist starting professional trade groups and guest
lectures on CGI at local universities and colleges.
For more information visit http://directorypublishing.com


************************************************************
Costs: $3 admission (Handouts are $1 to $2 when available)

Location:

Westside Pavillon Mall
Community Room C
    3rd Floor (top) - West End of Mall
10800 West Pico Blvd, Corner of Westwood Avenue
Los Angeles, CA  90064
(310) 474-6255  Management Office (closed on Saturdays)

Free Parking - Parking Lot structure at West end of Mall.
       Enter from Pico or Westwood, southwest corner of the intersection


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Directions:

The parking you are directed to is either roof top (limited)
or the West basement parking on the southwest corner of
Westwood Blvd and Pico.  Enter from either street.

 >From 10 East or West, exit at Overland, see 405 North right below...
 >From 405 Freeway North, go 10 East - go North about 1 mile,
   turn left into Parking Structure's last driveway, the "Express Ramp"
   to the roof, park there or go down on the West side ramp to the
   basement parking.  Take the escalator or elevator to the mall's street
   level, then escalators up to the third floor.
 >From 405 Freeway South, exit at Pico, at the bottom of the off ramp
   turn left (south) to reach Pico, turn left (East) onto Pico, go
   under Freeway for about 1 mile, turn right (South) before Westwood,
   about fifty feet into Underground Parking Structure's first driveway.

WEST BASEMENT PARKING
    If you reach Westwood Blvd, then turn right (South) go under the
    overhead, turn right (West) into first driveway, either go up to the
    roof, or into ground level parking, the lower levels are reached to
    the left rear.  Take the escalator to the third floor.  Go to the west
    end and take the elevator or escalator up to the third floor.

On the third floor south side enter the Community Room C.
(Old BrookStone Store).

FROM FOOD COURT (the old location):  Walk west the entire length
of mall, thru Nordstorms if it is open (at 10am), otherwise go down
and cross Westwood Blvd in the crosswalk, then take bookstore
escalator to third floor.  On the third floor south side walk to

Community Room C, about 3 stores from the west end.