DNS resolution and speed

[opentoe]

Hello happy campers.

 

All ready to switch my rig over to the Norco 4224. Received it the other day. Had new style backplanes in it, came with the 120mm fan board and also 2.5" tray I think. Also, a box of lots of brackets and metal parts I have no idea what to do with, but I won't even use them right now. Just going to install the board and get it up and running for now.

 

Anyway, have a question. Since I have upgraded to V6 I've seen an odd delay when I first go to access the webui. I use Google Chrome as my browser. I set up a bookmark favorite to access my server easily. All my workstations and clients are planet names like Mercury, Mars, Venus and of course the main player in the house is call SUN. Everything revolves around the sun, right? When I click on the shortcut Google Chrome will indicate at bottom left "resolving host". This will take about 4 or 5 seconds sometimes to resolve. Doesn't sound like a lot but if you count to yourself 1-1000, 2-1000, etc it is a long time to resolve a local machine. After it resolves it then says at the bottom left, "waiting for sun". Another 4 to 5 seconds, then the login prompt comes up. After I login the webgui is quick, responsive, no delays with any of the selections at all. The dashboard comes right up and it responds very nicely. It is a very fast system. I have tried different approaches. I never really thought about it until now, and it never happened with the older version. I use Comcast's DNS, but within my home network it doesn't need to go out and resolve a private IP so that shouldn't be the problem. I checked my router, and my router does have built-in stats and a linux log window and that appears to be fine also. It is an Asus RT-AC68 router. Always been a pleasure to work with. My server is statically configured. Any suggestions to try? It does happen on multiple computers. Also, when I access it with the direct IP address there is no resolve delay at all of course but an initial load/respond delay the first time. I'll try to capture the whole thing with a small video in realtime so you can see. But, back to the build for now.

Thanks.

 

 

[ken-ji]

Its definitely a DNS resolution error. Probably related to local DNS - are all the machines referring to the same internal DNS server and have the same DNS search domain?

for windows: use

ipconfig /all

for unRAID: use

cat /etc/resolv.conf

- I don't remember where in the GUI this is.

 

 

[opentoe]

Its definitely a DNS resolution error. Probably related to local DNS - are all the machines referring to the same internal DNS server and have the same DNS search domain?

for windows: use

ipconfig /all

for unRAID: use

cat /etc/resolv.conf

- I don't remember where in the GUI this is.

 

I tried using my ISP's DNS server and I tried using my router as the DNS server. I'll start from scratch. I have so many devices hooked into my network now hard to keep track. TV's, receiver, tablets, phones, scary really on how many clients there are.

 

 

[BoHiCa]

This is a local DNS thing, and ken-ji says. Your ISP's DNS won't help you with this one.  If you have a local DNS server for your LAN (e.g. local Active Directory or other DNS provider for your local networks), you can add a static entry there (your ASUS router might have DNSMasq running (a dns proxy provider for your local network), so you can add a static dns entry for your unRAID box).

 

You can also try adding an entry to the local machine's 'hosts' file (varies by OS).

 

For winblowz NT/2K/XP/7/8.x (probably 10 also):

 

1. Run notepad or Notepad++ as administrator (right click the exe and choose run-as Administrator)

2. Edit %SystemRoot%/System32/drivers/etc/hosts  (For a typical winblowz client this is: C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts)

3. There should be some extensive comments on how to add an entry in the file, but here's a typical entry:

192.168.1.199  Tower  #unRAID Server

4. Save the file

5. *BAM!* page should load instantly if the web server is awake.

 

The process above will be very similar depending on your client workstation OS (don't have any iPads or other Apple products to use as alternative examples, which I think have to be jailbroken to add manual entries anyway...).  There are so many devices on home networks now, I they would all benefit from a local DNS master service somewhere (I run mine on my SmoothWall Express 3.1 router) to help keep track of things. Just make sure that the client machines first DNS entry is to your local DNS service provider (very often in home networks this is your router or whatever device is providing dhcp and/or gateway services), usually with forwarding of failed look-ups down-stream to your ISP or google's public DNS!  It has gotten *insane* in the past decade or so!

 

Hope that helps!

 

 

[opentoe]

This is a local DNS thing, and ken-ji says. Your ISP's DNS won't help you with this one.  If you have a local DNS server for your LAN (e.g. local Active Directory or other DNS provider for your local networks), you can add a static entry there (your ASUS router might have DNSMasq running (a dns proxy provider for your local network), so you can add a static dns entry for your unRAID box).

 

You can also try adding an entry to the local machine's 'hosts' file (varies by OS).

 

For winblowz NT/2K/XP/7/8.x (probably 10 also):

 

1. Run notepad or Notepad++ as administrator (right click the exe and choose run-as Administrator)

2. Edit %SystemRoot%/System32/drivers/etc/hosts  (For a typical winblowz client this is: C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts)

3. There should be some extensive comments on how to add an entry in the file, but here's a typical entry:

192.168.1.199  Tower  #unRAID Server

4. Save the file

5. *BAM!* page should load instantly if the web server is awake.

 

The process above will be very similar depending on your client workstation OS (don't have any iPads or other Apple products to use as alternative examples, which I think have to be jailbroken to add manual entries anyway...).  There are so many devices on home networks now, I they would all benefit from a local DNS master service somewhere (I run mine on my SmoothWall Express 3.1 router) to help keep track of things. Just make sure that the client machines first DNS entry is to your local DNS service provider (very often in home networks this is your router or whatever device is providing dhcp and/or gateway services), usually with forwarding of failed look-ups down-stream to your ISP or google's public DNS!  It has gotten *insane* in the past decade or so!

 

Hope that helps!

 

I never had the resolution delay previously and the only thing that did change was I upgrade to V6. Maybe it is inherent to V6. It is not a crucial problem, but within my own LAN DNS resolution usually was instant. I'll try adding the server to my hosts file to see if that makes a difference.

[bonienl]

This is a local DNS thing, and ken-ji says. Your ISP's DNS won't help you with this one.  If you have a local DNS server for your LAN (e.g. local Active Directory or other DNS provider for your local networks), you can add a static entry there (your ASUS router might have DNSMasq running (a dns proxy provider for your local network), so you can add a static dns entry for your unRAID box).

 

You can also try adding an entry to the local machine's 'hosts' file (varies by OS).

 

For winblowz NT/2K/XP/7/8.x (probably 10 also):

 

1. Run notepad or Notepad++ as administrator (right click the exe and choose run-as Administrator)

2. Edit %SystemRoot%/System32/drivers/etc/hosts  (For a typical winblowz client this is: C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts)

3. There should be some extensive comments on how to add an entry in the file, but here's a typical entry:

192.168.1.199  Tower  #unRAID Server

4. Save the file

5. *BAM!* page should load instantly if the web server is awake.

 

The process above will be very similar depending on your client workstation OS (don't have any iPads or other Apple products to use as alternative examples, which I think have to be jailbroken to add manual entries anyway...).  There are so many devices on home networks now, I they would all benefit from a local DNS master service somewhere (I run mine on my SmoothWall Express 3.1 router) to help keep track of things. Just make sure that the client machines first DNS entry is to your local DNS service provider (very often in home networks this is your router or whatever device is providing dhcp and/or gateway services), usually with forwarding of failed look-ups down-stream to your ISP or google's public DNS!  It has gotten *insane* in the past decade or so!

 

Hope that helps!

 

I never had the resolution delay previously and the only thing that did change was I upgrade to V6. Maybe it is inherent to V6. It is not a crucial problem, but within my own LAN DNS resolution usually was instant. I'll try adding the server to my hosts file to see if that makes a difference.

 

Set your unRAID as local domain master, see Settings -> SMB -> Workgroup settings -> Local Master = yes

 

You may need to restart your other devices on the network in order to have this effective.

 

[opentoe]

I've always left that setting alone, except for the workgroup. Has always been on Local Master:YES.

 

[Frank1940]

I've always left that setting alone, except for the workgroup. Has always been on Local Master:YES.

 

Is your server always on?

 

Are any other computers always on?

 

Do you put your Server to 'sleep'?

 

The reason for the questions is that Samba uses an 'election' process to setup which computer will serve as the Local Browser (Local Master) to perform the DNS service for the Samba network.  It can be any computer that is using Samba and is a part of the workgroup.  The easy way to find out which computer is the Local Browser is the procedure described in this article:

 

    http://scottiestech.info/2009/02/14/how-to-determine-the-master-browser-in-a-windows-workgroup/

 

If your Server is not the Master Browser then you would probably be want to force it to become the Master.  (Having a slow computer or one that is overloaded is not the one you want serving as a Master Browser!) You do this by shutting down every computer on the network EXCEPT your server  and leave them off for a half hour.  The turn back on the other computers.  Do it slowly as The Samba Spec is based on a Network scheme that MS developed back in the days of Windows for Workgroups when a 80386 was the 'hottest' processor available.  It was designed as a peer-to-peer network that did not require a server.  The polling time in those days was something on the order of once every ten minutes!  (I don't know if that has ever been reduced.  Samba Networking has always been a bit of a kludge but it mostly works and when it doesn't, you can rip your hair out trying to get it to behave--- then it will suddenly start to work right and you have no idea what you did to 'fix' it!)

 

Good Luck...

 

 

[opentoe]

Thanks for the tips. I use all sysinternals tools and tools from Nirsoft.com as well. Who doesn't, right? Anyway I think it may be a little to much of a pain to even worry about. Since I'm constantly adding/removing computers, testing, and a whole slew of other things I think I'll just live with it. I also re-install Windows 8.1 x64 when I also upgraded to unRaid V6, so most likely it will probably boil down to crappy Microsoft programming. I live alone and have my girlfriend over a lot and my router indicates I have 21 clients connected to it. I even think my refrigerator is now online. Just getting out of control!