Reverse DNS Question

[Jack Gillis]

My ISP just added reverse DNS to my ADSL line. Shields Up brought it to
my attention and I asked the ISP about it. They say I shouldn't be
concerned. And, that many sites will not allow access without it.
Shields Up says that any Web site I long on to can
recognized my computer without setting a cookie, as least as far as I
understand it. I try to keep most, if not all, cookies off of my
machine.
Maybe I'm paranoid.

What does conventional wisdom say about reverse DNS? I've run without
it for a long time and haven't seen any bad effects because of the lack
thereof.

Should I insist they disable it?

Thank you very much.

 

[Colin Nash [MVP]]

My ISP just added reverse DNS to my ADSL line. Shields Up brought it to
my attention and I asked the ISP about it. They say I shouldn't be
concerned. And, that many sites will not allow access without it. Shields
Up says that any Web site I long on to can
recognized my computer without setting a cookie, as least as far as I
understand it. I try to keep most, if not all, cookies off of my machine.
Maybe I'm paranoid.

What does conventional wisdom say about reverse DNS? I've run without
it for a long time and haven't seen any bad effects because of the lack
thereof.

Should I insist they disable it?

Thank you very much.

Shields Up likes to make people paranoid

There isn't a real security or privacy concern here. It won't let people
personally identify you... the only thing is that *might* let a site
recognize you even if your IP address has changed (since the hostname would
stay the same.) However, many ISPs will also change the host name if you
are assigned a new IP address, which means that even this minor little issue
won't occur.

Insisting that they disable it will likely involve you needing to find
another provider.

 

[Jack Gillis]

Shields Up likes to make people paranoid

It is so easy to in my case.

There isn't a real security or privacy concern here. It won't let
people personally identify you... the only thing is that *might* let
a site recognize you even if your IP address has changed (since the
hostname would stay the same.) However, many ISPs will also change
the host name if you are assigned a new IP address, which means that
even this minor little issue won't occur.

Insisting that they disable it will likely involve you needing to find
another provider.

Thank you, Colin.

Then I will leave things as they are.