Ask HN: Neutral DNS servers?

#1

Post by NotAWorkNick » Fri, Mar 11, 2022, 5:04 PM UTC

Hi HN - Here’s a question that I hope will generate some useful comments, suggestions and links.

Background for question: I normally run an internal DNS resolver with an upstream pool of 10-15 providers. These are normally a mix of Global Anycast servers (Quad9 etc) with some OpenNIC, YandexDNS etc thrown in towards the end to cover the ‘chilling effects’ blackholes.

Currently Yandex DNS is pinging a timeout (either due to black-holing or DDOS’ing depending on where I connect To/From).

My question to HN is this – Given my ‘Information Wants To Be Free’ viewpoint, are there any DNS equivalents of Switzerland (WWII, Neutral to all parties) providers?

Re: Ask HN: Neutral DNS servers?

#2

Post by neilalexander » Fri, Mar 11, 2022, 5:13 PM UTC

You could just run a recursive resolver yourself by using the root hints. You don't need to delegate your DNS queries onto a third-party resolver like Quad9.

https://www.iana.org/domains/root/files

Re: Ask HN: Neutral DNS servers?

#3

Post by NotAWorkNick » Fri, Mar 11, 2022, 5:20 PM UTC

neilalexander wrote: post #2

You could just run a recursive resolver yourself by using the root hints. You don't need to delegate your DNS queries onto a third-party resolver like Quad9. https://www.iana.org/domains/root/files

Thanks for that, appreciated. I'll be honest- I'm just a 'little guy' in the food chain so I always figured that doing something like that was for the ISP level folks One quick question though - After taking a quick skim of it the list seems to be extremely 'Western-Centric' (reference link https://www.internic.net/domain/named.root)

Re: Ask HN: Neutral DNS servers?

#4

Post by icedchai » Fri, Mar 11, 2022, 5:44 PM UTC

NotAWorkNick wrote: post #3

neilalexander wrote: post #2

You could just run a recursive resolver yourself by using the root hints. You don't need to delegate your DNS queries onto a third-party resolver like Quad9. https://www.iana.org/domains/root/files

Thanks for that, appreciated. I'll be honest- I'm just a 'little guy' in the food chain so I always figured that doing something like that was for the ISP level folks One quick question though - After taking a quick skim of it the list seems to be extremely 'Western-Centric' (reference link https://www.internic.net/domain/named.root )

The root servers are anycasted. Each one of those root server IPs corresponds to N physical servers at diverse networks / locations all over the world.

Re: Ask HN: Neutral DNS servers?

#5

Post by schleck8 » Fri, Mar 11, 2022, 5:51 PM UTC

ControlD, DNS.sb and LibreDNS for instance. The latter two are open source.

I think non-disciminating DNS providers are rather the norm and not an exception though.

Re: Ask HN: Neutral DNS servers?

#6

Post by NotAWorkNick » Fri, Mar 11, 2022, 6:08 PM UTC

schleck8 wrote: post #5

ControlD, DNS.sb and LibreDNS for instance. The latter two are open source. I think non-disciminating DNS providers are rather the norm and not an exception though.

Really?

Then your experience differs greatly from mine (EU based). My usual mix of 'fastest anycast' upstreams’ are reliably black-holing a lot of .ru domains right now

(Rightly or wrongly is a ‘nother question for a ‘nother day).

P.S, YMMV and obviously does :)

Re: Ask HN: Neutral DNS servers?

#7

Post by tambeb » Fri, Mar 11, 2022, 7:44 PM UTC

NotAWorkNick wrote: post #6

schleck8 wrote: post #5

ControlD, DNS.sb and LibreDNS for instance. The latter two are open source. I think non-disciminating DNS providers are rather the norm and not an exception though.

Really? Then your experience differs greatly from mine (EU based). My usual mix of 'fastest anycast' upstreams’ are reliably black-holing a lot of .ru domains right now (Rightly or wrongly is a ‘nother question for a ‘nother day). P.S, YMMV and obviously does :)

Could you give a couple of examples of the black holing you've seen?

Re: Ask HN: Neutral DNS servers?

#8

Post by antipooting » Fri, Mar 11, 2022, 7:48 PM UTC

No post body was provided.

Re: Ask HN: Neutral DNS servers?

#9

Post by nfriedly » Fri, Mar 11, 2022, 7:49 PM UTC

I know this isn't quite what your asking for, but one idea is to set up a Pi-hole + unbound: https://docs.pi-hole.net/guides/dns/unbound/

Unbound is basically your own private DNS resolver and then Pi-hole lets you filter out whatever "junk" you don't want.

Re: Ask HN: Neutral DNS servers?

#10

Post by nobody9999 » Fri, Mar 11, 2022, 7:49 PM UTC

>My question to HN is this – Given my ‘Information Wants To Be Free’ viewpoint, are there any DNS equivalents of Switzerland (WWII, Neutral to all parties) providers?

Presumably the root and authoritative servers. Which is why I use a local recursive resolver rather than any upstream/third party resolvers.

You should try it. It's easy and fun!