nameserver able to direct user to the fastest server

J

jack

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I need to setup a nameserver able to direct visitors to the fastest server. for example, visitors from US, will direct to a US server because the ping is lower and less routing for the US visitors to visit the US server, visitors from Asian, will direct to a Asian server because the ping is lower and less routing for the Asian visitors to visit the Asian server, and so on... basically use ping and routing to identify which web server the visitor is going to direct to.

Is this hard to setup? Where can I find someone to set this up for me?
Thanks in advance.
 
no, it's not have to base on where the ips. it should base on the result of ping/routing.

thanks
 
The easiest way to do it would be to run DNS on both servers.

For example, you host your site in Europe and in the US.

On the European server you've got the site set up and the DNS pointing to the European server.

On the US server you've got the site set up and the DNS pointing to the US server.

Since resolvers ask all DNS servers for the IP# of the domain, and accept the one that returns the information first, so the server that offers DNS the fastest will probably be the server that's best for delivering the site contents as well.

Note that this post doesn't address the issue of conformaing databases, handling email, etc.

We're happy to set it up for you, but we're not cheap :) and I've given you enough information to do it yourself.

Jeff
 
Jeff, I have tried to set it up as you suggested use multiple DNS servers before, but after some tests sometimes doesn't seem to direct to the fastest nameserver, no idea why, I tested with three servers, two in US and one in HK, I use dnsstuff to resolve A record, but sometimes it still went to HK server which is the slowest ping compare to the other two. It's not reliable enough. I found some products that able to do this, software such as IntelliDNS(no update for long time), Global Dispatch. hardware there are F5 3DNS, Cisco Local Director, DNSMux... these seems a bit too complex and cost a lot(thousands).
If there is any software can do something similar IntelliDNS with lower cost would be great, or any tricks can be done with BIND.

Thanks
 
Last edited:
The only trick you can use with BIND is to use a very short TTL (we use 600 seconds or ten minutes by default).

And of course the fastest server could turn into the slowest within ten minutes.

Or the local ISP could be ignoring TTL and caching for a long time.

Jeff
 
F5 3DNS trick is something similar to this:
When a hostname lookup comes into their DNS server, it immediately responds with whichever IP is currently the highest in priority, but with a 0-second live time for the response, which means the next request that same client makes from the server will also require another DNS lookup. (i.e. the next link on your website that gets clicked) At the moment of the first request from a new client IP, the DNS server pokes all the various load-balancers to ask them to find out which one has the best response time to this particular client IP and the next time that client asks for DNS resolution of the hostname, the DNS server responds with the IP of the load balancer that has the best response (that also has real-servers that are alive and well of course).
 
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