Pieter's questions

I recently migrated a domain I own from Cloudflare to Netlify DNS, so I had to update my nameservers. When I run a recursive DNS lookup that bypasses DNS cache everything seems to be set up correctly:

$ dig howtogit.net +trace
(output truncated)
howtogit.net.       20  IN  A   159.65.199.87
;; Received 57 bytes from 198.51.44.1#53(dns1.p01.nsone.net) in 18 ms

However, a regular DNS lookup fails:

$ nslookup howtogit.net                                                                               
Server:     192.168.1.1
Address:    192.168.1.1#53

** server can't find howtogit.net: SERVFAIL

I assume that if caching was at fault, Cloudflare would still resolve the lookup which it doesn't. A lookup at 8.8.8.8 (Google's DNS) also fails:

$ dig @8.8.8.8 howtogit.net

; <<>> DiG 9.10.6 <<>> @8.8.8.8 howtogit.net
; (1 server found)
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: SERVFAIL, id: 63809
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 512
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;howtogit.net.          IN  A

;; Query time: 43 msec
;; SERVER: 8.8.8.8#53(8.8.8.8)
;; WHEN: Sun Sep 23 13:05:50 CEST 2018
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 41

Since DNS records are cached, I also tried flushing Google's DNS cache for my NS and A records. I'm still getting the same result, despite the change having happened over 10 hours ago.

Is my configuration incorrect? How do I make sure my DNS can resolve properly again?

I know that VPNs are considered to be more secure than proxy servers for a number of reasons, but I'm curious to know if this counts for SSL connections too. Are there additional security risks associated with using HTTPS over a proxy instead of a VPN?

I'm doing some research into thin clients. I've configured an RDP server on a home PC with Linux. I have an older desktop computer that I want to use as a thin client.

Although I could just install an RDP client on its current OS (Windows XP), I'm looking for a minimalistic OS that presents the user with an RDP login prompt. This should greatly decrease the computer's startup time. Is there such an OS out there?

If I were to log in to - let's say - Gmail.com (which uses HTTPS by default), can my login and password be intercepted if I'm on an unencrypted wireless network?

And if I still have the login cookie from a previous session so that I don't have to reenter my login and password, can third parties get access to my account? Is there a distinction between HTTP and HTTPS here?

I was instructed to replace the hard drive in an old laptop, a Dell Latitude D505. I'm suspecting that there was a head crash when someone moved the laptop while it was turned on. In the specifications, I found this about the hard drive:

30GB ATA-100; (4200RPM); 40GB ATA-100 (5400RPM); 60GB ATA-100 (4200RPM)

*Optional 40GB (5400) 2nd HDD Module for media bay

I'm familiar with SATA and IDE, but ATA-100 doesn't ring a bell. What do I have to take into account when I go look for a replacement hard drive?