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:

    1. Log in to Windows as a user with administrative privileges.

    2. 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.

    3. In the command prompt window, type in the following command:

         instsrv MaraDNS c:\maradns\srvany.exe

    4. 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.

    5. 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.

    6. 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".

    7. 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.

    8. Double click on the newly created Application key. Give this
       key the value "c:\maradns\maradns.exe" (without the quotes).

    9. Double click on the newly created AppParameters key. Give
       this key the value "-f mararc" (again, without the quotes).

   10. Double click on the newly created AppDirectory key, and give
       it the value "c:\maradns".

   11. 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".

   12. Find the MaraDNS service in the list of services.

   13. Double click on the service to bring up its properties.

   14. 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.