[HOWTO] - Speed up DNS lookups in OSX

[zootbobbalu]

After following this trick to speed up DNS lookups, none of my Classic apps can see my internet connection.

Anyone else having this problem?

[zootbobbalu]

Setting up OS X to be a DNS might disable Classic mode's ability to connect to the internet. Since I didn't do much internet stuff in Classic mode, this didn't bother me until I wanted to use AIM again. AIM and Netscape in Classic mode wouldn't connect to the internet. This drove me crazy for about an hour. Apple helped me figure out that all my settings were ok, but still no solution. I remembered that the last thing I tinkered with related to my internet settings was speeding up my DNS loopups with the tip posted here. The only thing that Classic mode doesn't like about this hack is adding your own computer as a DNS (127.0.0.1) in the network settings in the system preferences panel. All I had to do to get Classic mode's ability to connect to the internet was remove my computer as a DNS and relaunch Classic. If anyone knows how I can keep my computer as a DNS in OS X and keep Classic happy, please let me know.......

[macxtra]

beef
Dinner
I experience the same dalay in starting up "beef" talked about ->


> everything's working... but when I reboot, it kinda gets stuck at "Starting
> Directory Services". The same thing happened when I was attempting to
> make changes to netinfo database before, so I guess it's for the same
> reason...

> Anyway... it got stuck there long enough for me to do the dishes...

> I don't need to reboot all that much, so it's not a big problem, but it's rather > annoying when you have to go back to 9 then back to X, etc...

> Am I the only one experiencing this? If anyone knows the solution, let me
> know.

any explains ....

[beef]

umm... you can read the post I've made sometime ago... I haven't discovered anything new.

[prophet6]

I had the same problem. removing the host entries I made in Netinfo fixed the problem. Then you add a FFAgent to your lookupd list, and go back to using /etc/hosts.

Works like a charm now...

[kilowatt]

I noticed today (because I rebooted, which I seldom do) that when NetworkTime was starting up, it took FOREVER. So I rebooted with apple-v (verbose mode) and NetworkTime gave some message about failing to resolve time.apple.com. After that happened, a few more things loaded, then the cacheing dns loaded. So looks like our dns server should start before any service that uses it, right?

Well, inside the StartupParamaters, it says it requires Disks, Resolver, Desktop DB, and Input Manager.


So why does the DNS server require the Resolver? Don't programs ask the Resolver to resolve hosts, and the resolver looks them up with the dns server? How can we make the dns server starrt up *before* anything requireing the resolver?


Also, I keep getting these entries in my console log (and on boot up in verbose mode):
Dec 20 01:22:18 mach4 lookupd[201]: DNSAgent: dns_fqdn_query_server - query failed for 127.0.0.1
Dec 20 01:22:28 mach4 lookupd[201]: DNSAgent: dns_send_query_server - timeout for 127.0.0.1
Dec 20 01:22:48 mach4 last message repeated 2 times
Dec 20 01:22:48 mach4 lookupd[201]: DNSAgent: dns_fqdn_query_server - query failed for 127.0.0.1
Dec 20 01:23:02 mach4 lookupd[201]: DNSAgent: dns_send_query_server - timeout for 127.0.0.1

This is all in my console.app file, but its really in /var/logs/netinfo.log

Any ideas?
Oh, and typing dig 127.0.0.1 in the terminal works fine...

[genghiscohen]

Darkshadow,
I have downloaded a program called Lookup Manager, that sounds like it does some of the steps in your tutorial. Have you checked LM out at all?
At work right now (on a Dell POS running WinNT) so I can't double-check, but IIRC, it will let you add a FFAgent but doesn't include a NILAgent.
Anyhow, if I feel energetic this evening, I'll give your full set of instructions a try.

[meech]

prophet6: How did you remove those host entries? I'm kinda stuck in single user mode... Can I remove them from there?

Regards, meech