Rating: 
Summary: Learning BIND & DNS as clearly as possible
Review: I am a netadmin who works in NT. We are going to Linux in bits and pieces and one peice is DNS. I'm picking up where my boss left off and I needed some strong basics, clear examples and a good reference point. This book is all of those things (other than the fact they forget to mention what file they are referring to from time to time). I'm reading the book cover to cover and I'm half way through. I jump ahead when I need to, but always come back to following the chapter outine.
I have gained such a knowlege of BIND and a better understanding of DNS and I owe it to this book. O'Reilly does a great job with it's tech books and I am a fan.
Rating:
Summary: Good Book
Review: I bought this book then Craig Hunt's DNS book. This book is better. I bought Craig's hoping it would be easier to read which it was but I found myself going back to O'Reillys time after time.As are most Tech books, you will find this very dry and cumbersome unless you're already a DNS wiz. I was trying to learn DNS form scratch and neither of the books made it easy. The first chapter of every Linux book needs to be some sort of a "Quick Start" just to get the server running. I am so tired of grudging through 3 or 4 chapters of unnecessary detail just to get something installed and working. Don't get me wrong. Detail is good but if your a Linux book author, simplify the install and configuration so we can get whatever it is working, then go into the detail. Go ahead and get this one for DNS. You don't really have a choice.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Practical Guide
Review: I bought this book to understand the basics
of DNS. Needless to say the book did its job
well. Explains the concepts, set up and
Administration very well. From the programmers point of view
this book had very good examples.
The C examples were well documented and explained
the workings of a resolver pretty well. Overall, I cannot think of a better reference/guide
book for DNS.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent DNS Guide
Review: I have both the 3rd and 4th editions of this book. It is a must-read kind of book for those needing to do DNS. I need an understanding of how DNS and BIND work since I wish to get my own internet services re-started. This book provides it. In my experience, DNS can be as painful to re-do correctly as it is to initially set up correctly because once you do have it running properly you can just forget all about it. It "Just Works". So when you are later faced with having to re-learn DNS it can be as painful as the initial learning experience. That is why a book with many how-to coding examples for different DNS zones becomes valuable. I sure wish this book had the examples. With the understanding that I've only read the first 89 of 600+ pages, I'd like to agree with all the positives cited by other reviewers. You really must get, and read, and re-read, and re-read this book if you want to run web servers, mailing lists, and so on. For such a comprehensive book, it offers only one getting-started example of use to someone wanting to set up his or her own domain quickly (like me.) The movie.edu examples given are excellent, but at least one additional example is really needed. How about discussion of and coding examples for a zone named video.biz consisting of 4 machines on the same network plus a print server and a Linksys Cable/DSL router? You know, the kind of zone someone at home or running a small business would establish. Also I would like to see a new Appendix, Appendix F, discussing common DNS coding mistakes based on the authors experience. Often seeing examples of coding mistakes can help people like me avoid them.
Rating:
Summary: DN what?
Review: I honestly knew zip about DNS, and in my field, that was just fine, I didn't need to know, and there were people who took care of that sort of thing. However, one of our recent projects 'required' me setup a Name Server. The admin who was 'supposed' to do it... couldn't! Anyway, this book really explains in excellent terms not only DNS servers, but the incredible chain of how it all works. By chapter 4, I had Bind installed, two Name Servers up, and 15 virtual hosts configured on a linux box. I cannot say enough good things about O'Reilly, they cover their bases really well. Regardless of whether you're new to DNS, or you know it all, this book will expand your knowledge base. Many kudos to the writers on a job well done.
Rating:
Summary: Setting up BIND on a *ix server? Start here.
Review: I really needed to understand DNS/BIND; not just know how to start, run, and update it- but really understand DNS. This book was perfect. The authors introduced DNS with a high-level overview and then moved in closer to help you set it up. You can actually read the fist 3 chapters and work through the next 2 while setting up your server and domain. The rest of the book really gets into the nuts and bolts of DNS and BIND. Don't stop after chapter 5, continue reading and pick all the knowledge you will need to be a DNS/BIND admin.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: I was new to administering DNS when I first bought the book, and now I feel quite confident with it. It covered most every aspect of the system from the very beginning (how the internet/networks work with domains, etc.). If you're managing a domain and/or virtual hosts, this is a great book.
Rating:
Summary: The bible of BIND
Review: I work as DNS Administrator for a ccTLD registry. I bought the second edition and my company has the third edition. We use it over and over to solve common problems, and prepare instruction for other people. It is the first book to understand some internals and behavior.
Rating:
Summary: Great book for the more DNS savvy geeks
Review: I would say this is one of the very best DNS and BIND books out there although it is by no means for a DNS beginner. It covers alot of the general aspects of BIND but you definitely need a pretty good understanding of how the domain name system works. It is straight and to the point but does lack in some areas as far as errors that you run across and practical solutions that you often run into running a dns server.
Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive, well-written, and accessible.
Review: I'm the DNS administrator at a mid-size Internet Service Provider, and because we are an ISP, a lot of our day-to-day operations rely on the proper implementation of DNS. After all, as I found out today, we do primary DNS for approximately 1800 domains (yikes). The combination of everyday experience with DNS and the wealth of information - both theoretical and practical - that I got from this book has done so much for my understanding of DNS and of the Internet as a whole. The book begins with the basics of building a nameserver, but I know that if I have a specific question, I can use it as a reference book as well. It's also written in a straightforward, accessible manner. The only constructive criticism I can offer is that I wish it had more information about managing many domains (not just subdomains). That's still not enough to lower my overall rating to four starts from five. If you have to get one book on DNS, get this one - it will more than suffice. I look forward to the next edition covering BIND 8.x. Excellent job, O'Reilly, Paul Albitz, and Cricket Liu!
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