How to configure advanced options
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The "sdnsplus.ini" file and the individual zone files can specify several advanced options not available from the graphical interfaces. You can edit these files manually with notepad.
Generally it is not necessary to change any of these settings from their defaults.
"sdnsplus.ini" file
Located in the directory where Simple DNS Plus is installed.
You need to stop Simple DNS Plus before changing this file, and then restart when done.
[Main]
DNSListenPort=<number>
Specifies the TCP/IP port that Simple DNS Plus listens for DNS requests on.
This should almost always be set to 53 (the default), but it is possible to use a different port number for example to work with a proxy program.
Default: 53
DNSFromPort=<number>
Specifies the port that Simple DNS Plus sends outgoing UDP requests from - and responses are returned to.
The default (0) means that it should select any available port number above 1023.
However, using this option it is possible to fix this port which can be useful when using a firewall.
This option is not used for zone transfers (TCP connections).
Default: 0
AutoUpdateRoot=<yes/no>
With this option enabled, Simple DNS Plus will automatically check for root server updates.
You may want to disable this if you are using an alternate root or if your server is only used on for intranet purposes.
Default: Yes
NewScan=<number>
Interval in minutes to scan data directory for files with ".new" extensions.
See How to integrate with other applications.
Not present by default.
ErrorFileDump=<Yes/No>
If an error occurs in the Simple DNS Plus program, it will attempt to create a "support.txt" file (to e-mail us for debugging).
This option specifies if the support.txt file should include the major configuration files.
Default: Yes
WarningBat=<Yes/No>
With this option enabled, Simple DNS Plus will execute the DOS batch file whenever an error or warning condition is detected.
See How to use "warning.bat" for details.
Default: No
DelOnlyZones=<list of zones separated by spaces>
This option lists zones which are to be treated as "delegation-only-zones" - meaning they should only contain delegations, and no data of their own.
When a DNS response, which is not a delegation, is received from a server responsible for one of these zones, the response will be converted into an "NXDOMAIN" error response.
Default: blank
DelOnlyAllTop=<Yes/No>
When enabled (=Yes) all top level zones (single segment / no dots) such as "com" and "net" are treated as delegation-only-zones (See above).
Please note that this does not include second level zones such as "co.uk" which would have to be added to the "DelOnlyZones" option above.
Default: No
DelOnlyExclude=<list of zones separated by spaces>
This option lists top level zones which are to be excluded when the "DelOnlyAllTop" setting is enabled (see above).
Default: blank
[Opt-General]
ServiceName=<text string>
ServiceDesc=<text string>
The Windows Service name and description.
You may need to change this if running more than one instance of Simple DNS Plus on the same computer.
The ServiceName can be used in "Net Start" and "Net Stop" commands.
Default: sdnsplus / Simple DNS Plus
[Opt-Requests]
ShowAddIP=<Yes/No>
When enabled, "Add IP address" controls are added to the "Listen for DNS requests on" IP list in the Options dialog. This makes it possible to configure Simple DNS Plus to listen for DNS requests on local IP addresses which were not automatically detected (a problem on some Windows Server 2003 installations).
Default on Windows Server 2003 and later: Yes
Default on earlier Windows versions: No
AutoCNAME=<Yes/No>
When enabled, all CNAME-Records will be translated into "normal" records.
For example if "www.xyz.com" has a CNAME-record pointing to "abc.com", and the A-record for "abc.com" is 1.2.3.4, a request for A-records for "www.xyz.com" will return A-record "www.xyz.com" = 1.2.3.4.
This is useful for certain client programs (including a widely used e-mail server) that don't understand CNAME-records.
Please note this is not correct DNS server behavior, and should only be used if you have a program that does not understand CNAME-records.
Default: No
MinTimeOut=<number>
Specifies the minimum period of time (in seconds) during which Simple DNS Plus will continue resending the same DNS request to other DNS servers.
With this setting at the default value of 0 (zero), client DNS requests will time-out after all authoritative DNS servers have been queried 3 times without a response.
In dial-up configurations, this may not leave enough time for the network connection to be established, and so Simple DNS Plus will return a "server failure" response to the client - and the client's application may fail.
This can be avoided by setting a sufficient minimum time-out interval here.
This option forces Simple DNS Plus to do additional processing, so for optimal performance, only use it if you experience problems with requests timing out before a connection is established.
The maximum value for this setting is 30 (seconds).
Default: 0
[Opt-Recursion]
NraNaaTXT=<text string>
This option overrides the default text of the TXT-record that is sent along with synthesized records to clients which are not offered recursion.
Only applicable if the "Respond with synthesized DNS records" option is selected in the Options dialog / DNS recursion section.
Default: not present
[Opt-Caching]
CacheTTLMinimum=<number>
This option specifies the minimum period of time DNS records are cached.
A value higher than zero may improve response time and reduce DNS traffic, but will likely cause problems with many domain names that rely on frequent DNS updates.
"cnn.com" is one example of a well-known larger web site, which depends on low TTL values to enable quick changes to their web site (they currently use DNS TTL values of 5 minutes).
Also, many small web-sites today depend on low TTL values because they run on ADSL or cable connections with dynamic IP addresses, and therefore require frequent DNS updates (when their IP address changes).
We generally do not recommend using this setting.
Default: 0
[Opt-Records]
PermTTLMin=<number>
A minimum TTL applied to all records in local zones (primary and secondary).
Default: 0
NXDomTXT=<text string>
This option overrides the default text of the TXT-record that is sent along with synthesized records in NXDOMAIN Redirect responses (see Options dialog / DNS records section).
Default: not present
HostsReverse=<Yes/No>
When Simple DNS Plus is configured to use a hosts file and this option is enabled, PTR-records will automatically be generated from the data in the hosts file in addition to A- and CNAME-records.
Default: Yes
[Opt-DHCP]
DHCPNS2=<IP address list>
Use to specify secondary DNS servers for DHCP clients.
(The first/primary is always the IP address of the Simple DNS Plus server)
Empty by default.
DHCPWINS=<IP address list>
Use to specify WINS server addresses for DHCP clients.
Empty by default.
DHCPNBDD=<IP address list>
Use to specify NBDD server addresses for DHCP clients.
Empty by default.
DHCPNODE=<number>
Use to specify NetBIOS node type for DHCP clients.
1=b-node, 2=p=node, 4=m-node, 8=h-node.
Empty by default.
DHCPScope=<text string>
Use to specify the NetBIOS scope ID for DHCP clients.
Empty by default.
[Secondary-Zones]
MinimumRefresh=<number>
MinimumRetry=<number>
MinimumExpire=<number>
Minimum values (seconds) for SOA records in secondary zones.
Can be used to limit the number of refresh and zone transfer requests.
Recommended if you don't control the primary DNS server for the secondary zones you host.
All are zero by default.
UseIXFR=<Yes/No>
Use to specify if IXFR (incremental zone transfers) should be used to synchronize secondary zones on this server with their primary server.
If your primary DNS server uses older DNS server software which does not support IXFR, it may be necessary or more efficient to disable this setting.
Default: Yes
Zone files
These files are located in the "data" subdirectory and have ".dns" extensions.
You need to reload records (Tools menu) after changing these files.
The following settings must be located before any records in the zone.
;$NoNotify
If present, Notify requests will not be sent to secondary or slave servers for this zone.
;$MinimumTTL <number>
Overrides any lower TTL specified in the file - and the "PermTTLMin" setting in the "sdnsplus.ini" file (see above).
