Google proposing DNS extension for improved server locality

googlecode.blogspot.com

12 points·mark_h··5 comments

Synopsis: Allow the top three octets of client address to be sent along with the query so the resolvers can try to suggest "closer" answers while preserving some anonymity.

Thoughts: Your resolver, or the DNS server you speak to will need to be updated to add a new RR for this. The ultimate authority will need to do something sane with it. Caching will be complicated if you have clients in multiple locations.

I wonder what the implications of IPV6 would be on this proposed approach. I see that Comcast is opening up the ability to get on their early list of IPV6 users.

I find myself wondering if this is something djb already put in tinydns. :)

I think Google is harming Net Neutrality, it expands the last mile problem to the several last miles. This will led to more 'This video is not available in your country' shit.

I somehow wish IPv6 allocation is hashed, all neighboring IP are randomly unrelated.

This will led to more 'This video is not available in your country' shit.

This won't have any effect on it, actually. Servers that are targeting users by location use the IP sent with each request to do localization, rather than which server was chosen by DNS. Otherwise it would be trivial to choose a server in the appropriate country and add an entry to your hosts file, bypassing these restrictions.

You could try to argue that making it possible for global companies to make their content arrive faster is bad for net neutrality, but given that this doesn't adversely affect other servers (and possibly benefits them by reducing congestion), that would be a hard argument to swing as well.

Edit: and for your second comment, I have no idea how routing algorithms would work if that were the case.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com