Questions on Squid (dnsserver) and DNS

I am running Squid (2.2S5) on a Linux box (RedHat v6.0 / kernel
v2.2.13) which is also running a nameserver (BIND v8.2.2-P5). Can I
get some clarification on Squid's dnsserver vs. BIND?

When I cannot resolve a name locally, I (BIND) query one of my ISP's 2
nameservers. If that fails, I query a root nameserver. In short, my
nameserver is a pretty standard setup.

By default, Squid reads these entries from my resolv.conf (the last
2 addresses are also used as forwarders in my BIND configuration):

        nameserver 127.0.0.1
        nameserver 111.222.333.444
        nameserver 555.666.777.888

So here, finally, are my questions.

1. Is there an advantage to directing Squid (dnsserver) to use only
address 127.0.0.1 for name resolution, or would I just be creating a
bottleneck? My thinking is that name resolution would be faster if
all resolutions went through the local nameserver, rather than having
dnsserver call one of my ISPs nameservers.

2. How frequently does dnsserver query the second or third nameservers
read from resolv.conf? Can I assume that because my local nameserver
is listed first, that the other server are rarely queried?

3. I reload Squid's dnsserver ("squid -k reconfigure") on a weekly
basis in the course of updating my URL redirector. This causes the
loss of any IP/name data cached by dnsserver. In contrast, my local
nameserver is rarely restarted, so the info it has cached is retained
for a longer period. Does this information (relative duration of
cached data) affect the optimal relationship between dnsserver and
BIND?

Thank you.

*** Steve Snyder ***
Received on Thu Dec 02 1999 - 14:30:57 MST