!!Con 2020 - Let’s implement DNS to learn history! by Dylan Nugent
12Let’s implement DNS to learn history! by Dylan Nugent
The history of most internet protocols is captured in static and sometimes obtuse standards documents called RFCs. Reading all the necessary RFCs to understand a protocol might seem like a tedious chore…but it doesn’t have to be! RFCs give us a unique glance into what was (and wasn’t) on the minds of engineers decades ago when they were designing these protocols! If we study RFCs like archeologists might study artifacts, we can learn a lot!
DNS, the system that translates domain names like ““google.com”” into routable addresses, is one of the oldest application protocols still in regular use! It’s defined across over 256 different RFCs, which sounds daunting, but we don’t need to look at them all! Let’s take a deep dive into a few of these RFCs and learn what we can by exploring some of DNS’s stranger quirks!
Dylan is a programmer who just moved to Brooklyn from San Francisco. He’s currently recovering from being a manager by spending time at the Recurse Center, a self-directed retreat for programmers who want to learn about things (such as the minuta of networking protocols)! When he’s not building DNS servers for fun, he’s probably backpacking, singing karaoke, or both.