Using Forwarders on a Windows Server

I have always been told to use your ISP's DNSs as forwarders on Windows DNS Servers. Today there was a EventID 5504 in the event log and on of the articles from Microsoft says to turn off forwarders. That =kind of shocked me. So should you or should you not use forwarders on a Windows DNS Server?

   I was surprised removing them the internet still worked. What does it use for resolution if it isn't forwarders?
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LockDown32OwnerAsked:
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Dirk MareSystems Engineer (Acting IT Manager)Commented:
I only use DNS forwarders because queries from forwarders are a lot faster than using root hints.

Your DNS is either using cached queried results or root hints.

I would add them back. look at this article

DirkMare

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it_saigeDeveloperCommented:
Root hints are used when forwarders fail or are not used.  I agree with DickMare though; lookups via root hints are slower than forwarder lookups.

I would either contact my ISP and see if they have other forwarders or use a different dns forwarder (possibly a public dns forwarder, e.g. google's public dns servers or openDNS).

-saige-
LockDown32OwnerAuthor Commented:
I was using Comcast's DNSs. Switched to Google's and the EventID 5504 is still there so it isn't a forwarder issue. From what I read on EventID 5504 it isn't really worth messing with unless it is causing problems and it isn't. All the articles I read made it seem like a ISP DNS issue but that doesn't seem to be the case.

   The IP Address of the offender is 173.254.179.200 which relates to a ISP in Sacremento, CA. So does that mean the forwarders are eventually hitting this ISP's DNS and it is returning something invalid?
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Dirk MareSystems Engineer (Acting IT Manager)Commented:
Use google public DNS there services are the best
8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4

DirkMare
LockDown32OwnerAuthor Commented:
Those were the ones I used
Dirk MareSystems Engineer (Acting IT Manager)Commented:
How often did you get the event entry in your event log?

DirkMare
LockDown32OwnerAuthor Commented:
Looks like it is a constant 3 per hour
Dirk MareSystems Engineer (Acting IT Manager)Commented:
Source of the connection?

DirkMare
LockDown32OwnerAuthor Commented:
173.254.179.200 is what is in the event log
Dirk MareSystems Engineer (Acting IT Manager)Commented:
Can you use a tool like Wireshark to capture the packets to and from your server, I would like to know what workstation is trying to establish so many connections every so often to that IP

Finding the source might give you more insight to what is going on.

DirkMare
LockDown32OwnerAuthor Commented:
I have wireshark running and tried to filter by that IP address but it said it was an invalid address. I have a feeling it needs to be on the LAN and it isn't. Where can I apply the filter to look just for that destination address?
Mal OsborneAlpha GeekCommented:
I don't normally use forwarders. The performance difference is largely theoretical; once running for a day or so most queries will be coming out of cache anyway. Would be really difficult to measure any difference in name resolution performance.
LockDown32OwnerAuthor Commented:
I am a little lost about root hints. Someone actually hosts a DNS Server "i.root-servers.net"? how could it be at 192.36.148.17?
it_saigeDeveloperCommented:
There are three private ranges 10.0.0.0/24 (or 10.0.0.1 - 10.255.255.254), 172.16.0.0/20 (or 172.16.0.1 - 172.31.255.254) and 192.168.0.0/16 (or 192.168.0.1 - 192.168.255.254).  Meaning that 192.36.148.17 is a perfectly valid public IP address.

Public and Private Addresses
-saige-
LockDown32OwnerAuthor Commented:
That explains the private ranges but not the first part of the question. "Someone actually hosts a DNS Server "i.root-servers.net (along with the others)"?
it_saigeDeveloperCommented:
Yes, someone actually hosts a nameserver called i.root-servers.net.  This someone is Verisign.
Verisign, Inc. is an American company based in Reston, Virginia, United States that operates a diverse array of network infrastructure, including two of the Internet's thirteen root nameservers, the authoritative registry for the .com, .net, and .name generic top-level domains and the .cc and .tv country-code top-level domains, and the back-end systems for the .jobs, .gov, and .edu top-level domains. Verisign also offers a range of security services, including managed DNS, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack mitigation[5] and cyber-threat reporting.
- Source

You can read more about the *root* name servers here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Root_name_server

-saige-
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