A group of experts has released an open-source alternative to the BIND DNS server software that boasts higher performance and better security.

The new DNS server — dubbed Unbound 1.0 — is available  here. 

Unbound is a recursive DNS server, which is used by ISPs and enterprises to support DNS look-ups by users. DNS is the feature of the Internet that matches domain names with IP addresses, and it is used for Web browsing, e-mail, and Internet-based telephony.

Unbound was released Tuesday to open-source developers by NLnet Labs, VeriSign, Nominet and Kirei. NLnet Labs, a nonprofit research firm based in The Netherlands, will provide ongoing support for the software.

From its first prototype in 2004, Unbound was designed to be a faster, more secure replacement for BIND. Unbound supports DNS security extensions ( DNSSEC ), which authenticate DNS lookups but are not yet widely deployed because they rely on a public key infrastructure.

"One of the main advantages is that it's high performing. We designed it from the beginning to be fast," says Matt Larson, director of DNS research with VeriSign. "We also designed it from the beginning to support DNSSEC. Other DNS servers had to bolt that on, but we were able to start fresh."

VeriSign has tested Unbound but isn't using it in production mode.

VeriSign runs the authoritative DNS servers for .com and .net, which are the servers that respond to queries from recursive DNS servers like Unbound. VeriSign uses homegrown software it calls ATLAS for its authoritative DNS servers.

VeriSign said that by offering Unbound to the open-source community, it is trying to give back to the Internet community.

"Our goal [with Unbound] is to have an active community. We want to get to the point where the community is looking at it, monitoring it and adding patches," Larson says. "This is just another example of VeriSign's innovation. We're always moving forward."

Developed in the early 1980s, BIND (Berkeley Internet Name Domain) is the most popular DNS server software on the Internet. However, BIND has suffered from serious security flaws, even in its current release, BIND 9.

BIND alternatives already exist, including DNS server software from Microsoft and Cisco and appliances from Infoblox, InfoWeapons and others. Another option is free DNS services from OpenDNS and NeuStar.

Bangalore, India's outsourcing hub, has been grappling with poor roads, traffic jams, and power cuts. From Friday, the city's outsourcing and other industries in the city have to cope with a new problem — a new, and distant, airport.

Staff working in the city's outsourcing industry, who travel extensively within the country and abroad, will have to travel about 40 kilometers more on average to the city's new airport, called Bengaluru International Airport (BIA).

As a result of the additional distance, air travellers may have to spend two to four hours on the city's congested roads to get to and from the airport, according to various estimates.

The city's older airport is scheduled to stop receiving commercial air traffic on Friday. This move is in line with an agreement between the government and the investors in the new airport, which has been set up in a remote suburb of the city called Devanahalli.

The city's business leaders and some other citizens are demanding that both airports be allowed to operate, with the older airport on the outskirts of the city at least handling short-distance traffic to and from Bangalore. The Bangalore City Connect Foundation (BCCF), an organization set up by Bangalore's citizens, is demanding that government renegotiate its contract with BIA to allow for the continued operation of the old airport for some traffic.

Industry representatives, including some from outsourcer Infosys Technologies, took to the streets on Saturday to protest the closure of the older airport. Its closure will affect the growth of the city's business as the new airport is not designed to meet new projections of passenger growth, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, chairman and managing director of biotechnology company Biocon, told reporters.

Almost 30 per cent of IT industry workers in Bangalore travel outside India at least once a quarter, said T.V. Mohandas Pai, director of human resources and a member of the board at Infosys.

But some analysts say the new airport, though inconveniently located, is not likely to affect Bangalore's outsourcing business.

"The old airport could not handle the growing traffic, and it will be a temporary blip as people adjust to the new reality," said Siddharth Pai, a partner at outsourcing consultancy firm Technology Partners International (TPI).

Customers who travel all the way from the U.S. or Europe to visit outsourcing companies in Bangalore are not going to change their minds because of an extra two or three hour drive, Pai said. Likewise, software engineers travelling abroad will, after some grumbling, leave early to catch their flights, he added.

An online retailer in the U.K. is taking preorders for a motherboard equipped with the upcoming Diamondville version of Intel's Atom processor for £53, or $104.

Tranquil PC's D9454GCLF Mini-ITX motherboard measures 17 centimeters by 17 centimeters and has a 1.6GHz Atom 230 processor and an Intel 954GC chipset, which includes integrated graphics. The motherboard is not a complete system, and still requires users to add memory and a hard disk, among other parts.

Diamondville is a variant of the Atom processor used in the Centrino Atom package for handheld computers. The Diamondville chips are intended to be used in low-cost laptops and desktops.

Tranquil is pitching the Atom-based motherboards as a powerful upgrade to Mini-ITX boards based on Via Technologies' rival C7 processor. The company says users can expect to see benchmark scores that are three to four times higher with the Atom system compared to the C7.

While users can order Atom motherboards from Tranquil now, they won't ship until the first week of June, when Intel plans to formally launch Diamondville at the Computex exhibition in Taipei. The Tranquil motherboard isn't the first product based on Intel's upcoming Atom chips to hit the market. Online retailer Expansys is taking preorders for Micro-Star International's Wind laptop, which also uses Diamondville.

REFERENCES:
MSI's upcoming Wind laptop priced from $560, May 12, 2008

The unlikely story of advanced 3G cellular service in the world's most tightly controlled and secretive country has turned another chapter with the start of network trials.

Cellular carrier Orascom said on Monday that it has completed the first 3G call on a WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) trial network in North Korea, and is working towards a commercial launch there later this year.

Orascom, based in Egypt, said in January that a 25-year exclusive license to offer 3G cellular service in the country had been awarded to CHEO Technology, a joint venture in which Orascom holds a 75 percent stake and Korea Post and Telecommunications holds the remaining 25 percent.

A full commercial service is scheduled to begin in the second half of the year, Orascom said.

In January, Orascom said it intended to provide voice, data and value-added services across the network, which represents a $400 million investment.

North Korea, the world's only Communist dynasty, keeps tight control of its people. Almost all citizens are forbidden from leaving the country and there are controls on internal movement of people into the capital city of Pyongyang. Poor conditions in the country have prompted hundreds of thousands over the last decade to risk their lives and flee to neighboring China.

Almost total government control of the population means phone calls are restricted and subject to routine monitoring, according to humanitarian aid groups that monitor North Korea.

A GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) cell phone network was previously launched in the country but access was restricted in 2004 and it's now thought to be used by a handful of elite in the country.