Arguments for/against use of forwarders{}?

[Jim Reid]

>>>>> "Steve" == Steve Snyder <swsnyder at home.com> writes:

    Steve> What are the relative merits of using or not using the
    Steve> forwarders option?

If you forward, you depend on whatever you forward to be always
available to answer queries. If the target(s) of those forwarded
queries die or misbehave or get renumbered or have their configuration
changed, you lose. Lookups for non-local names will probably then time
out and fail. If you don't forward, you're only dependant on your
local name server which is under your own control. So the questions
to ask yourself are "Can I trust my ISP?" and "Am I as competent at
running a name server as my ISP?".

    Steve> A related question: does the use of "query-source address *
    Steve> port 53" impact the above decision?  If so, how?

No, though it's possible that any name server you forward to could be
behind a firewall or router that requires lookups to have a specific
source port number.