Running MaraDNS as a Windows NT/2000/XP service
Note: This document only applies for the Windows port of MaraDNS
It is possible to run the native 32bit-Windows port of MaraDNS as a
service that starts up automatically when Windows is started and runs
in the background. This document gives step by step instructions on
how to do this. These instructions assume one is using Windows XP;
they probably can be adapted to work with Windows NT and 2000.
The rest of this document will simply call Windows XP "Windows". These
directions will not work with Windows 95, 98, or ME.
In order to run MaraDNS as a service on Windows, the following is needed:
- The native Windows32 port of MaraDNS, with a name like
maradns-1-2-12-win32.zip
- A zip file, originally issued by Microsoft and freely available several
places on the Internet called "srvany.zip". This file can be easily found
via an Internet search engine. The file in question is 24,287 bytes
long, has an md5 sum of 7e827466629dea02d8f16648d9c43400, and a
sha1 sum of e2e2ea3701046eb782bd58ae05fb9face1e03543.
Once these files are obtained, unpack both .zip files by
right-clicking on them and selecting "extract all" (Windows XP finally
has native zipfile support). The rest of this document will assume that
you have extracted all the files in both zip files to the directory
c:\maradns.
Here are all 12 files that will be in c:\maradns if the files
were correctly obtained and extracted:
- mararc
- readme.txt
- run_maradns.bat
- maradns.exe
- askmara.exe
- Askmara.html
- pthreadGC2.dll
- pthreads-w32-2-6-0-release.tar.bz2
- Service.html Note: This file will not be present
if using MaraDNS 1.2.11 or lower
- srvany.exe
- instsrv.exe
- srvany.wri
Since it may be desirable to actually have these files in a directory
besides c:\maradns, the rest of this document will have this
directory in bold face; substitute c:\maradns with the directory
actually containing the above files.
At this point, here is what is needed to make MaraDNS a Windows
service:
- Log in to Windows as a user with administrative privileges.
- Open up a command prompt by going to the start menu, selecting "run",
and typing in cmd when Windows asks you what file to run.
- In the command prompt window, type in the following command:
instsrv MaraDNS c:\maradns\srvany.exe
- Open up the Windows registry editor. This can be done by selecting
"run" from the Windows start menu and running the command "regedit".
Note: Incorrect usage of the Windows registry editor may cause
your system to be unusable, forcing a reinstall of the operating system.
Please use this program with the utmost of care. If you are not
comfortable editing the registry of your system, or think that you may
make an error, please seek the advice of someone more comfortable with
the registry editor.
- Go to the "key"
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MaraDNS This
is done by clicking on the "+" to the left of "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE", followed
by clicking on the now-revealed "+" to the left of the word "SYSTEM" under
"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE", followed by clicking on the now-revealed "+" to the
left of "CurrentControlSet", and so on.
- Create a new key under MaraDNS called Parameters. This
is done by right-clicking (clicking with the right mouse button) on "MaraDNS",
selecting (with the left mouse button) new -> Key, and typing in the name
"Parameters" (without the quotes in the name) to replace "New Key #1".
- Under
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MaraDNS\Parameters,
the following three new strings need to be created:
- Application
- AppParameters
- AppDirectory
This is done by going to the
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\system\CurrentControlSet\Services\MaraDNS\Parameters
key, right clicking on the key for each of the above values, selecting
"new string value", and selecting one of the above three names. Repeat this
process until all of the three above strings are added to the Windows
registry.
- Double click on the newly created Application key. Give this
key the value "c:\maradns\maradns.exe" (without the quotes).
- Double click on the newly created AppParameters key. Give
this key the value "-f mararc" (again, without the quotes).
- Double click on the newly created AppDirectory key, and give
it the value "c:\maradns".
- Now we need to start up the MaraDNS service, and make sure it starts up
every time Windows is rebooted. From the Windows desktop, go to
Start -> Control Panel -> Administrator tools -> Services.
If you can not
find "Administrator tools" under the control panel, make sure you are using
classic instead of category view (selected on the left hand side of the control
panel window), or select "upkeep and maintainence", followed by "Administrator
tools".
- Find the MaraDNS service in the list of services.
- Double click on the service to bring up its properties.
- Make sure the MaraDNS service is automatically started up, and start
the MaraDNS service.
At this point, the MaraDNS service should be running. To verify this,
enter the c:\maradns directory from the cmd prompt
(the commands are "c:" followed by "cd c:\maradns"). Next, type in
the following command:
askmara 1:www.microsoft.com.
The output should look something like this:
# Querying the server with the IP 127.0.0.1
# Question: Awww.microsoft.com.
www.microsoft.com. +900 cname toggle.www.ms.akadns.net.
toggle.www.ms.akadns.net. +300 a 207.46.19.30
# NS replies:
# AR replies:
If not, verify that you have a working internet connection. If you do, make
sure MaraDNS is running by seeing if it is listed as "maradns.exe" in the task
manager (Cntl + Alt + Del) under the "Processes" tab. Note: If you can't see
tabs in the task manager, simply double click in the blank area on the side of
the task manager.