We tested six Dynamic DNS (DDNS) products in Network Computing's lab at the University of Wisco nsin at Madison--Bay Networks' NetID Enterprise, Cisco Systems' Cisco DNS/ DHCP Manager, Competitive Automation's JOIN DHCP 3.3, Enterprise Systems Management Corp.'s UName-It, Network TeleSystems' Shadow Server, IPcentral IP Address Management Database application and Quadritek Systems' QIP--to see how well they provide DDNS and relieve our IP management nightmares.

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Although DDNS is still an emerging standard, the products we tested do solve the problem of DNS entries for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) clients. When a DHCP client leases an IP address, the DHCP server automatically updates the DNS server with the new information. This lets the DHCP client access host name-based e-mail, news and other Internet applications almost instantaneously.

Pulling Back the Covers Our test bed consisted of S unSoft Solaris and Microsoft Windows NT. Wherever possible, we imported as much of the university's IP address information from our 6,100-node network to seed the DNS tables. We found that while systems such as NetID Enterprise and QIP could handle this much information, others, such as Cisco DNS/DHCP Manager, did not hold up as well.

It was difficult to observe DDNS in operation, since none of these products offered full DDNS support--each had its own way of dynamically updating DNS. Overall, these products support the dynamic updating of DNS and offer fairly reliable service. After all was said and done, we awarded top honors to Bay Networks' NetID Enterprise for its key mix of power and ease of use.

Bay NetworksNetID Enterprise
Bay Networks' NetID Enterprise efficiently handled the 6,100 nodes at our university network. It clearly overpowered the other IP address management products with its intelligence--its main asset. Although we found that all of the systems tested had some ability to import and export data and manage IP addresses, none performed these feats as well as NetID. Using an Oracle database to store its information, NetID provides a flexible, yet powerful, interface for managing a large IP pool.

Bay Networks' offering also has a clear and logical interface that makes managing a large array of IP addresses a breeze. NetID not only handles large networks consisting of multiple domains, it also helps you in every step of setting up your network. For example, with it you can subdivide your Class "B" network into many smaller networks. This is usually a nightmare to perform, but NetID has a built-in expert system that helps you lay out the networks and appropriate netmasks.

We found that with NetID's user interface, we could manage our IP addresses in a number of ways. For instance, we could manage our DNS names from an easy-to-use, container-based system. Conceptually, Ne tID's interface is similar to many others, but in pra ctical use it was only topped by Network TeleSystems' Shadow Server, which offers fewer features overall.

We also liked NetID's ability to view all of the address information very quickly, yet still give us the option to view only specific data at one time. No other product had this flexibility.

To download an Adobe Acrobat .pdf format version of Internet Address Management Tools Features charts, click here.