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DNS Forwarder vs DNS Resolver.
Simply said, DNS Forwarders and DNS Resolvers are network computer components that handle the internet’s request and response process in order for your browser to discover sites.
Based on the functions they offer, they may be set up as DNS forwarding or DNS caching servers. In this post we are going to go over these differences a little more in detail as well as how DNS Forwarders and DNS Resolvers can affect your website or ecommerce business.
What’s DNS anyway?
The Domain Name System (DNS) is the computer version of a phone book. People can look up information on the internet by entering domain names such as BBC.co.uk or USAToday.com, which are known as top-level domains (TLDs).
The IP address is a numerical identifier assigned to each device or computer on the network.
Domain names are converted into IP addresses for websites to load quickly, as demonstrated by DNS.
The Domain Name System converts the address into an IP address when you visit a website in your browser.
This is the step when your computer communicates with the website’s servers, either through a middleman server or immediately.
An IP address is a set of numbers that distinguishes each machine connected to the Internet. It’s utilized by other computers to identify one another.
For example, domain names (DNS) such as amazon.com are more readily remembered than IP addresses such as 192.168.1.1 (in IPv4) or even more complicated newer alphanumeric IP addresses like 1700:df00:5069:1::e753:dg9h7 (in IPv5).
What is the difference between a DNS Forwarder vs DNS Resolver?
The DNS Forwarder (or more than one) informs the DNS service where to send questions if it doesn’t “know” the answer (for example, if it’s not authoritative or is in the cache).
The DNS Resolver settings indicate where queries should be sent if an item needs to be resolved or a reverse lookup is needed.
DNS Performance. Why should Websites and ecommerce businesses care?
DNS is one of the most essential technical elements in a successful online business, whether it’s ecommerce, banking, or any other internet service.
Consumers will not be able to access webpages or services that are accessible online if they do not have DNS.
The role Authoritative DNS plays for companies.
From a company standpoint, authoritative DNS will be the major topic. Companies may use authoritative DNS to set up their online presence with a domain name of their choosing (i.e., mybusiness.com).
The domain name will be linked to an Internet Protocol address (possibly the firm’s or a third party’s).
The use of a strong domain structure is beneficial for marketing and allows visitors to find your website quickly.
The importance of Recursive DNS for business domains.
Recursive DNS, on the other hand, is an important element that frequently goes unnoticed when people talk about DNS.
The component that allows consumers to find domain names that businesses have created is recursive DNS.
Every time a consumer reads the news, checks their bank accounts, or visits this website, they utilize recursive DNS services.
Recursive DNS and DDoS Attacks.
Recursive DNS is essential to DDoS assaults as a result of this.
While recursive DNS is beneficial to Internet users, malevolent hackers have discovered numerous ways in which DNS may be exploited to launch DDoS attacks.
These DNS Amplification attacks are also known as DDoS assaults. The availability of open recursive DNS servers was the first vulnerability that malicious attackers.
An open recursive server has no security measures or IP access lists, allowing anybody on the Internet to use it as a recursive DNS server.
According to Cisco, attackers’ DNS response packets (particularly those that utilized the ANY or DNSSEC record types) were larger than the original query packet.
Several studies have shown that the original DNS query packet size is amplified 25x to 40x when compared to the DNS response packet received.
A malicious attacker sends numerous queries to an open recursive DNS server for a specific host or domain name in order to figure out where the target is.
The malevolent offender, on the other hand, impersonates the source IP address and enters an IP address of their intended victim rather than using their own source IP address.
The malevolent attacker has effectively launched a large DDoS assault using recursive DNS response packets, which can be multiplied by a tremendous amount.
Recursive DNS servers may be used to launch DDoS attacks, but they are also prone to a direct attack.
Despite the fact that most news coverage concerns DDoS assaults on websites and authoritative DNS servers, an assault on a recursive server may technically deny users access to any Internet-facing content or service.
Recursive DNS servers are frequently hosted on unicast IP addresses, which might make them vulnerable to attack.
Many servers, particularly those operated by Internet Service Providers, are configured in a unicast mode, which implies they are walled off and autonomous from one another.
Any individual who connects to their desired website or service on the Internet using that particular recursive DNS server may be prevented from doing so.
The difficulty is that many consumers are not aware of other recursive DNS services, which means savvy and tech-savvy Internet users will be aware of them, but the average non-technical client will not be.
Many of the managers are unaware that their recursive DNS servers are not protected.
As a result, cybercriminals have free reign to use the many open recursive DNS servers on the Internet.
Differences between a DNS Forwarder vs DNS Resolver, summary.
A DNS Forwarder is only able to cache queries without doing any of the actual resolving. A DNS caching DNS Resolver can both cache requests and resolve them if needed.
A resolver might be better used when you have more than one zone in your DNS hierarchy, while a forwarder could be better when the topography of your DNS hierarchy requires that DNS requests have to traverse several servers.
A resolver might also be better suited when you have limited storage space because it doesn’t cache requests.
A DNS Forwarder is best used when a caching server won’t fit in with your current architecture, and a resolver is best used for resolving DNS requests.
They can both be used together, but this adds complexity to your system architecture .
A DNS caching forwarder speeds up the DNS lookup process by caching DNS requests before passing them on, reducing DNS lookup times.
A DNS caching resolver reduces DNS lookup times by resolving them with cached results or other DNS servers if needed–reducing DNS lookup times and increasing the success rate of DNS lookups .
The combination of forwarder and resolver provides both caching and resolution, but using them together can add complexity to your system architecture.
When you use a DNS Resolver and forwarder together, DNS requests are resolved by resolving servers using DNS information from caching servers.
A DNS Forwarder is only able to cache queries without doing any of the actual resolving.
A DNS caching resolver can both cache requests and resolve them if needed.
In the end, there may be times when you want to use only DNS resolving servers, though. Again, it’s best to use one or the other, but never both.
