It has happened to all of us... after finally managing to get through to the terminal servers, you type the name of your favorite computer and nothing happens. After what seems like hours, the terminal servers finally wake up and let you connect; but you suddenly don't feel like reading your Email anymore. For those of you still waiting for the terminal servers to connect, help is on the way!
The problem is that the terminal server is having trouble getting an answer to a DNS request. DNS, or Domain Name System, is the protocol that is used to translate from a computer's host name to its numerical IP address. If you tell the terminal server you would like to connect to sleepless.cs.uiuc.edu, for example, the terminal server issues a request for a DNS lookup. If the request works as it should, the DNS server replies with 128.174.244.169 and the terminal server connects to the host. If the primary DNS server is not working correctly, the terminal server takes a while to figure out that it isn't getting an answer. This is what causes the excessive connection delay.
CCSO has proposed a DNS redirector system that will collect DNS requests and then redistribute them to functioning DNS servers. If a DNS server goes down, the redirector can automatically compensate by forwarding requests to another server. This will reduce most of the connection delays and help to evenly distribute requests among all the campus servers. Distribution of the requests will also keep the workload spread out over all the machines, allowing for a more prompt reply.
CCSO approached ACM's Special Interest Group for Networking (SigNet) with this project, and asked if they would be willing to refine and implement such a DNS director. CCSO provided them with the necessary development hardware, and the project was underway. Work has begun on the low-level network interface, but much of the design is still in the early stages of development.
SigNet can still use people who are interested in helping out on this project. If you'd like to learn more about networking or want to be involved in a project that could affect the entire UIUCnet, come out and join us. Project meetings are at 8pm on Thursdays in 1102 DCL. Watch for details on the newsgroup uiuc.acm.sigbio (long story, don't ask...) or contact Jay Kreibich (jak@uiuc.edu) for more information.