As mentioned in http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=578019 browsers using ports/www/webkit make a dns request for . each time the mouse position changes.
Chrome doesn't have this problem (it doesn't seem to have this code in its internal copy of webkit). I tracked down a patch in https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=38263 which fixes this. It seems a bit of a hack (why is it bothering to look these up internally anyway?) but it's way better than what we have now. With the port diff below, I can now start xxxterm or midori, open a page, and move the mouse over the window, without sending hundreds or thousands of junk requests to the nameserver. If you're using this on a metered or slow internet connection it's quite an improvement... Index: Makefile =================================================================== RCS file: /cvs/ports/www/webkit/Makefile,v retrieving revision 1.41 diff -u -p -r1.41 Makefile --- Makefile 30 Dec 2010 17:55:32 -0000 1.41 +++ Makefile 14 Feb 2011 09:31:47 -0000 @@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ COMMENT = open source web browser engine DISTNAME = webkit-1.2.6 EPOCH = 0 +REVISION = 0 CATEGORIES = www HOMEPAGE = http://webkitgtk.org/ Index: patches/patch-WebCore_platform_network_soup_DNSSoup_cpp =================================================================== RCS file: patches/patch-WebCore_platform_network_soup_DNSSoup_cpp diff -N patches/patch-WebCore_platform_network_soup_DNSSoup_cpp --- /dev/null 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 -0000 +++ patches/patch-WebCore_platform_network_soup_DNSSoup_cpp 14 Feb 2011 09:31:47 -0000 @@ -0,0 +1,16 @@ +$OpenBSD$ + +don't try and resolve DNS for . for every single mouse movement +in a browser window. from https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=38263 + +--- WebCore/platform/network/soup/DNSSoup.cpp.orig Sun Feb 13 17:45:39 2011 ++++ WebCore/platform/network/soup/DNSSoup.cpp Sun Feb 13 17:46:05 2011 +@@ -36,6 +36,8 @@ namespace WebCore { + void prefetchDNS(const String& hostname) + { + #ifdef HAVE_LIBSOUP_2_29_90 ++ if (hostname.isEmpty()) ++ return; + String uri = "http://"+hostname; + GOwnPtr<SoupURI> soupURI(soup_uri_new(uri.utf8().data())); + // We may get invalid hostnames, so NULL-check here.
