Solus now has and is utilizing NTP vendor zones from the NTP Pool Project.

JoshStrobl

Happy to say Solus now has its own vendor pool zones for NTP graciously provided by the NTP Pool Project, allowing us to move away from Google for NTP / time server usage. Our systemd has been updated, stable repo users can expect the update next Friday.

Building on this, we are also looking into alternatives to systemd's default DNS server: Google, such as Cloudflare DNS (which is, by default in systemd, the fallback). Should we find a privacy-oriented alternative that can operate on our scale, we'll look into switching over. Bare in mind, this does not impact any local DNS resolution that occurs in your network, so if you have a home server set up with a DNS server (e.g. dnsmasq) like I do, you won't be affected.

WetGeek

JoshStrobl allowing us to move away from Google

Any move away from Google is a good move, IMHO.

bvdlingen

JoshStrobl

https://www.quad9.net/ could be a decent alternative for Google and Cloudflare DNS

It's a non-profit and designed with privacy in mind:
https://www.quad9.net/home/privacy/

[deleted]

I really like this change, thank you for implementing it!

livingsilver94

Finally the time has come!

JoshStrobl

bvdlingen Somebody else brought this up as well on Twitter, I mentioned that while they're not bad provider, I think DNS filtering that Quad9 prides itself on is a very slippery slope and I have concerns it could lead to unintended / undesired censorship. To avoid that blacklist, you have to use their "unsecured IP", which also means giving up on DNSSEC, which isn't acceptable.

WetGeek

bvdlingen https://www.quad9.net/ could be a decent alternative for Google and Cloudflare DNS

The name (quad9) leads me to believe that the URL is 9.9.9.9, but the web site didn't actually tell us that, so far as I could see. It only describes installing it on Windows and Apple. Maybe I just didn't follow the site far enough?

Is it actually 9.9.9.9?

kyrios

At least setting the other way around Cloudflare DNS with Google as fallback would already be an improvement.
Otherwise, if Quand9 is not an alternative, perhaps it's worth having a look @ https://dns.watch/

SOLUSfiddler

kyrios
That's a great suggestion, just checked the website and saw it's a small company from my home country! Hooray!!
And I have already changed my DNS settings (Fritz!Box settings). Seems to work.

ender

Sorry if this is off topic but when are those dns used ? To my understanding, my dns server is the one provided by the network I am currently connected to, or the one I manually set for that connection. If any of these are misconfigured, I don't have any fallback…

DataDrake

ender If for some reason DHCP on the local network fails to provide a name server, it will fallback to those. So, almost never.

ender

Thx for the clarification. Could be nice though to somehow force this fallback, on many network I trust more the solus team than the people providing the dns server 🙂

Mr_McBride

+1 for quad9 DNS.

Staudey

WetGeek The introduction video tells you it's 9.9.9.9 at 1:30. Then the instructions for Mac and Windows mention it, and the "How Quad9 works" section has an image showing the IP.

edit: What I want to say with this: Yes, it actually is 9.9.9.9 😀

ManicRobot

Mullvad (a VPN provider) offers a public DNS server too: 193.138.218.74.

WetGeek

Staudey edit: What I want to say with this: Yes, it actually is 9.9.9.9

Thanks for confirming that. Time to replace all those 4.4.4.4 and 8.8.8.8 DNS settings.

karypid

So, I just got some SSL connection errors and noticed my system time is a bit wrong. I seem to be 18 seconds behind (compared to an ubuntu box and a windows box). How does Solus synchronize time? Is it ntp? What do I restart/check logs for to see if it's working properly?

karypid

Right, so apparently I had time sync off somehow. Found it in settings (Date and Time -> Automatic Date & Time).

I turned it on and my time is back to normal.