

Why DNS in OS X 10.10 is broken, and what you can do to fix it - xvirk
http://arstechnica.com/apple/2015/01/why-dns-in-os-x-10-10-is-broken-and-what-you-can-do-to-fix-it/

======
parasubvert
This article is at best misguided. OS X 10.10 DNS is not broken, it is working
as intended - just differently from the past. Standards have changed and many
haven't noticed.

All of the bugs cited have to do with ".local" domains. You should never use
.local domains as IANA has designated this domain as a special use domain for
Multicast DNS as part of IP Zeroconf and Bonjour.
[http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6762](http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6762)

Apple has also made this clear here: [http://support.apple.com/en-
us/HT203136](http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203136)

Yosemite has split the job of unicast and multicast DNS up such that you
cannot resolve single-label .local domains with unicast DNS anymore; you MUST
use multicast. This is why hosts will resolve with nslookup or dig but not
ping. The old behavior with mDNSresponder was arguably legacy backwards
compatibility for unicast DNS resolution of .local hosts.

(I figured this out the hard way over a weekend using the Googles when my
local VMs weren't resolving properly via dnsmasq - my fortunes changed when I
looked into ".local").

There is one remaining problem with Yosemite DNS I haven't figured out yet,
and that's getting unicast DNS resolution via dnsmasq while offline.
Frustrating.

~~~
jeffcox
The counter argument to this is that the RFC is exceedingly new, and directly
from Apple. Microsoft has been using .local in example (and recommending them
for production) AD builds for a decade. I see what Apple is going for, and I
don't mind the idea, but the practical results are frustrating and pointless.

~~~
winthrowe
No, Microsoft has not been recommending .local, as this document, circa
Windows Server 2000, states:

> Identify your organization's DNS owner and determine what registered DNS
> names you have available on the network that will host Active Directory.

> If you do not have a registered domain name, you should register a name with
> an Internet DNS registration authority.

[https://technet.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/bb727085.aspx](https://technet.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/bb727085.aspx)

>

~~~
noinsight
Actually they've said different things about it:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.local#Microsoft_recommendation...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.local#Microsoft_recommendations)

------
rnhmjoj
I had the "<hostname> is already in use" problem, the safari not able to
resolve any hostname and I could not use wake on demand for almost 2 years
because of some bug. Maybe I am unusually unlucky but I agree that the quality
of the last OS X releases has clearly got worse. The problem with apple
software is that if it doesn't "just work" there is little to do about it.

I am not so sure about reenabling mDNSResponder. This may cause worse
problems.

~~~
webscale2015
Their software has improved on the mobile front, it seems that's where all
their engineers focus these days. It is sad that mac users long for the
stability, speed and simple effectiveness of previous versions.

~~~
protomyth
I wouldn't say that. We are still experiencing the iOS won't connect to wifi
bug. The really chaotic thing is that iPhones or iPads of the exact same model
and software revision (current iOS 8.1.3) will randomly connect, not connect,
or connect long enough to get an ip address then not be able to do anything.
It is really getting quite frustrating. We have a Cisco 5807 controller and
the 3702e wireless points. Every other OS works just fine. Only having trouble
with Apple products and randomly at that.

~~~
craigching
Agree, having wifi problems myself, pretty much have to restart it on every
use and that seems to get me around it until the next time it sleeps. I'm at
the point of considering going back to iOS 7 on all my devices.

~~~
protomyth
I'm just baffled because we have (among tens of other devices) two iPhones
with the same model number and one works and one doesn't. I have some students
very happy and some very unhappy. Its not like I can get logs from these folks
to figure out what the difference is.

------
visarga
I downgraded from 10.10 to 10.9 and now my laptop is faster and crashes much
less often. I will probably hold on to 10.9 for a few years. At least on this
laptop.

------
munchhausen
To be fair, innovation and replacing battle-hardened^W^Wobsolete system
components with new software that's pushing the envelope comes at a cost.
Apple are doing the right thing here and at this pace, I can see OSX being
ready for the desktop soon. I'm not replacing my Ubuntu box with a Mac just
yet, as some of my core productivity apps have a dependency on DNS, but I'll
be keeping a close eye on OSX for sure.

------
dfcowell
What kills me about 10.10 is that OSX doesn't even try to resolve a domain
name if you're offline. I run dnsmasq locally, which handles all of my DNS
requests, capturing _.dev domains (resolving them to 127.0.0.1) and forwarding
everything else to Google 's servers. This is great as long as I'm connected
to WiFi or Ethernet (both are configurable through system preferences) but if
I'm travelling and don't have an active network connection - quite frequently,
in my case - there's not even an _attempt* to hit a DNS server. It just fails.

I'm so desperately need a fix to this that I'm wondering if there's some kind
of a dongle I can plug into my ethernet or USB port to fake a LAN, just so I
can use dnsmasq.

The only thing stopping me from wiping out OSX and using Linux full time is
the necessity of running Sketch and the Adobe/MS Office suite for work
purposes. :/

~~~
realityloop
I posted this issue on hn a week or so ago
([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8969581](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8969581))..
I tried via AppleCare to escalate this and the response from Apple engineers
was that it's expected behaviour.. Also if not for a few key apps I'd be
switching to some Linux variant.. Here is a video showing the bug with a
comparison of 10.9 and 10.10
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m9OI_AjCx8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m9OI_AjCx8)

------
feld
I've seen the Safari hangs -- sometimes it won't even open a new (empty!) tab.
I knew it had to be network related, but forgot that discoveryd is in 10.10 or
I would have suspected DNS right away.

edit: anyone remember how broken DNS would prevent you from being able to
completely login to GNOME? That is what this feels like.

------
untog
I've come to the realisation that I don't trust Apple software much these
days. I used to upgrade to the latest version of both phone and computer OS
quickly, but these days I'll hold on as long as I can - I'm still on 10.9, and
waiting for the inevitable software upgrade that will make me have to pull the
trigger.

I miss the Snow Leopard days.

~~~
rayiner
Yosemite is very solid for me as long as it doesn't have to do with iOS
integration. iOS 8 is shit-pure-shit, to the point where even my non-technical
mother in law and wife have asked about downgrading. Seriously, random non-
technical people I meet talk about how bad iOS 8 is and how they won't
upgrade. I haven't seen anything like it since the Windows 9x era.

~~~
protomyth
Yosemite's Finder is a continuous source of errors (move a lot of files and
watch it crash, never mind the reversion in Applescript). It also has some
problems with connecting to drives on a server.

~~~
MrBuddyCasino
I don't know anyone who doesn't have a paus alternative such as Forklift
installed. Finder is probably the worst app Apple ever released.

~~~
protomyth
Well, buying a couple 100 copies of Finder replacements is not seen as a good
use of money. Plus, training is an issue.

------
engi_nerd
I eagerly await a true fix to 10.10's issues with dropping wifi connections.
Both Macbooks in my house running 10.10 drop the wifi connection at least
5x/day, often more. My other devices do not experience these drops, and these
same machines were just fine on 10.9.

My opinion of Apple's software quality has decreased over the past few months.

~~~
eridius
Any chance those two MacBooks are connected to a different wifi basestation
than your other devices? I have an issue right now where the base station in
my living room regularly drops connections (to any devices) but all the other
base stations work just fine.

~~~
engi_nerd
A bit late in seeing this -- but no, I only operate one base station (Netgear
AC1900).

~~~
eridius
And you're running the latest version of OS X 10.10, right? I thought the MBP
wifi issues were supposed to be resolved by one of the updates.

~~~
engi_nerd
Oh I updated the day it was available. The issue was not resolved. It seems to
have gotten _worse_.

------
MarcScott
The networking issues with Yosemite were the final push I needed to shrink it
down to a tiny partition and install Linux on my MBP.

I'm a very happy MBP user now, and having a tiling windows manager is such a
productivity boost, I doubt I'll ever go back.

------
NietTim
DNS is broken in 10.10? Haven't had a single problem...

~~~
smackfu
That's the problem with networking, right? That the environments you are
running in are so diverse that it's nearly impossible to test all the
situations. I'm sure that the Apple testers didn't think it was buggy before
they released it but a lot of people are having issues in real world
situations where the old system worked fine.

------
souterrain
Note that no one would have clicked on this article if it said "Why mDNS in OS
X 10.10 is broken..."

