[asxless]

We've had a WildBlue satellite internet connection for a while now. The overall performance is roughly as good as DSL and a bit better for large downloads. But the latency can be a significant problem when browsing, reducing the perceived performance to little better than dial-up on some pages/sites.

The satellite latency issue shows up in two main areas...
1- DNS requests and
2- Beginning to download individual web page components.

The DNS requests for a single Web page can be quite numerous due to ads etc. So reducing this delay may make a significant improvement.

* What is the best way to reduce DNS delays on a satellite connection?
* Can the OS X DNS cache be adjusted to reduce the number of DNS requests across the satellite link?
* What does it take to set up a local caching DNS server?

BTW there is one area where the latency works to advantage -- pop-under windows, that get around browser settings, can usually be closed before they display any content

TIA - asxless in iLand

ps -- I have already applied Apple's Broadband Tuner which AFAIK does not adjust anything w.r.t. DNS but does seem to improve large downloads a bit.

[mduell]

Run bind on your local machine.

[asxless]

Originally Posted by mduell

Run bind on your local machine.

Thanks for the tip and link but... I already knew about bind. And AFAIK bind has been part of OS X since 10.2. So there is really little need to "install" bind via DarwinPorts.

What I don't know how to do is _configure_ the DNS Server (named). I was rather hoping that someone had produced a GUI tool for configuring named for the rest of us

BTW I would happily pay a shareware fee for a GUI front end for named.

-- asxless in iLand

[mduell]

I don't know of any GUI tools, but there are like a bajillion howtos.

[asxless]

Originally Posted by mduell

I don't know of any GUI tools, but there are like a bajillion howtos.

Thanks. But I already know how to use Google

BTW you may have noticed that adding three little letters "mac" to your google search query transforms a "bajillion" howto hits to just one valid OS X DNS server configuration hit. And that one is for 10.2. and has not been updated since 2003.

Even though OS X is unix, each variant (AKA distro) can store those pesky little config files in different directories. That is why I posted this thread. I'm looking for specific advice on how to setup a caching DNS server running on OS X 10.4.x.

FWIW If no one posts a reply, with OS X specfic details, I'll invest the time to figure it out for myself. I was just hoping someone here had already done it and would be willing to share their experience.

Thanks again -- asxless in iLand