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> Running a privacy-focused public DNS service is a highly specialized undertaking This seems like an overstatement: I have been running my own recursive DNS w

by drnick1 12d ago

> Running a privacy-focused public DNS service is a highly specialized undertaking This seems like an overstatement: I have been running my own recursive DNS with Unbound for years and never thought it was a "highly specialized undertaking." It took perhaps a couple of hours to set up in the pre-AI age. I filter ads and trackers using an aggressive blacklist[0]. [0] https://github.com/hagezi/dns-blocklists https://github.com/hagezi/dns-blocklists

pprotas 12d ago
You can't compare running a single service in your home network with the operations it takes to serve a public DNS
- drnick1 12d ago
  This is a scaling problem, not an intrinsic difficulty. Mullvad already had the infrastructure in place. I suspect the real reason is cost-cutting.
  - morserer 12d ago
    It's a legal problem (granted, you could still call that both a scaling problem and a cost problem), not a technical nor infrastructural one. That's where Quad9 has specific experience with public hosting that Mullvad doesn't. I'm sure that the time, effort, money, and exposure that goes into responding and adhering to legal requests for a publicly offered service is something Mullvad wasn't expecting and would rather not be doing considering it's not their core focus.
  - anvuong 12d ago
    What is intrinsic difficulty? A product at scale has many intrinsic dimensions, not just technical. Saying scaling is not an intrinsic difficulty is pretty weird given a highly scalable product usually looks nothing like their 1-user counterpart even when they have the same functionality.
- ApolloFortyNine 12d ago
  >https://freedns.afraid.org/ https://freedns.afraid.org/ This dude has been doing it for 25 years, and actually this is a dns provider for domain names which I'm decently sure makes it more complicated than public dns. They're allowed to say they don't want to pay for it anymore, I just think their logic is bad. Or maybe their lawyer said they're running risks just ignoring takedown and they didn't want to deal with it anymore.
  - blahlabs 12d ago
    > this is a dns provider for domain names which I'm decently sure makes it more complicated than public dns Can you expand on this? Isn't all DNS for domain names?
    - pocksuppet 12d ago
      They mean it's authoritative DNS, not a resolver. The two are completely different services. Authoritative DNS is the side that serves the records for your website, resolver is the part that follows the tree of authoritative servers on behalf of the client. Hey dang can I get my rate limit removed yet?
SirSavary 12d ago
How much traffic is your public DNS serving?

by drnick1 12d ago

pprotas 12d ago

You can't compare running a single service in your home network with the operations it takes to serve a public DNS

drnick1 12d ago
This is a scaling problem, not an intrinsic difficulty. Mullvad already had the infrastructure in place. I suspect the real reason is cost-cutting.
- morserer 12d ago
  It's a legal problem (granted, you could still call that both a scaling problem and a cost problem), not a technical nor infrastructural one. That's where Quad9 has specific experience with public hosting that Mullvad doesn't. I'm sure that the time, effort, money, and exposure that goes into responding and adhering to legal requests for a publicly offered service is something Mullvad wasn't expecting and would rather not be doing considering it's not their core focus.
- anvuong 12d ago
  What is intrinsic difficulty? A product at scale has many intrinsic dimensions, not just technical. Saying scaling is not an intrinsic difficulty is pretty weird given a highly scalable product usually looks nothing like their 1-user counterpart even when they have the same functionality.
ApolloFortyNine 12d ago
>https://freedns.afraid.org/ https://freedns.afraid.org/ This dude has been doing it for 25 years, and actually this is a dns provider for domain names which I'm decently sure makes it more complicated than public dns. They're allowed to say they don't want to pay for it anymore, I just think their logic is bad. Or maybe their lawyer said they're running risks just ignoring takedown and they didn't want to deal with it anymore.
- blahlabs 12d ago
  > this is a dns provider for domain names which I'm decently sure makes it more complicated than public dns Can you expand on this? Isn't all DNS for domain names?
  - pocksuppet 12d ago
    They mean it's authoritative DNS, not a resolver. The two are completely different services. Authoritative DNS is the side that serves the records for your website, resolver is the part that follows the tree of authoritative servers on behalf of the client. Hey dang can I get my rate limit removed yet?

SirSavary 12d ago

How much traffic is your public DNS serving?