Cisco Routers can act like DNS Servers?!?!

Wow! Technology really does evolve with a blink of an eye … I mean who really knew the same box that has a Router functionality will also serve as a DNS server. With time, as a specific technology progresses and matures, there comes a point that its beyond excelled; however another dimension is created and then it goes through the same process to be worked on, in this case and in most cases it has become the multi-functional ability of a product.

Yes, Cisco Routers can now act like DNS Servers and that might sound like such a bonus. I talked to many of my friends at school taking the same Cisco based course as me about this feature, and jeez … the loyal Cisco geeks that they are, many of them seem to be blinded about this feature. So much hype for what?!

Let me cut straight to the point, it isn’t such a godly feature, it causes a billion complications in the long term compared to the short-term all-in-one solution or the cost optimization that it provides. For any device that promise to offer more than it’s original functionality, the add-on is never really top-notch.The DNS Server ability on the router has its advantages as well, however it has more disadvantages.

The biggest advantage that a router based DNS server provides is that its very close to its users which means the speed is rapid and the load put on the server is massively reduced.
However the disadvantages play out the advantage, just like bugs tend to plague servers very fast, if it hits a router based dns server, oh boy, you better be ready for the chaos. That would mean pretty much shutting the network down as that could corrupt your local cache, and cause problems in the IOS registry.There is a major security threat as well because the router based dns server is generally much open to public and this would increase the exploitability factor of the router as well, calling for some real pandemonium.

All in all … it is a waste, overdoing technology and causing unnecessary complications, I wouldn’t want to risk my entire network for some add-on function. That was my view guys … look forward to hearing from you about it. We will also be teaching you how to configure this DNS server in our consulting section.