Book Image

Managing Mission - Critical Domains and DNS

By : Mark E.Jeftovic
Book Image

Managing Mission - Critical Domains and DNS

By: Mark E.Jeftovic

Overview of this book

Managing your organization's naming architecture and mitigating risks within complex naming environments is very important. This book will go beyond looking at “how to run a name server” or “how to DNSSEC sign a domain”, Managing Mission Critical Domains & DNS looks across the entire spectrum of naming; from external factors that exert influence on your domains to all the internal factors to consider when operating your DNS. The readers are taken on a comprehensive guided tour through the world of naming: from understanding the role of registrars and how they interact with registries, to what exactly is it that ICANN does anyway? Once the prerequisite knowledge of the domain name ecosystem is acquired, the readers are taken through all aspects of DNS operations. Whether your organization operates its own nameservers or utilizes an outsourced vendor, or both, we examine the complex web of interlocking factors that must be taken into account but are too frequently overlooked. By the end of this book, our readers will have an end to end to understanding of all the aspects covered in DNS name servers.
Table of Contents (17 chapters)
7
Types and Uses of Common Resource Records

What is Whois?

As we outlined in the Anatomy of a domain name section, the domain name can be split into logical sections, such as Registrant, Admin Contact, Tech Contacts, and Nameservers. All of these sections are described and enumerated in records called Whois records and Whois servers serve those records. While in the early days, Whois records were merely informational repositories of points-of-contact for domain names, as the internet became more integral to everyday living and business, these records became of the utmost importance. They have legal bearing now; they are used to decide ownership disputes and liability issues. There exist forensic Whois record auditors who trace domain ownership using these records to assess whether a given domain may be stolen.

The Whois servers are internet hosts that listen for Whois requests (typically on port 43), and they respond to...