the facts are, internic's own servers (f.gtld-server.net etc) were sending back NOERROR/NOANSWER whereas my server was sending back a lame delegation. that means clients would try other servers to gain the right final answer if they got a bad answer from my server, but they would just report a fatal application error ("host not found") if they contacted an internic gtld server. the other fact of note is that the reason my server was lame had to do with some kind of provisioning problem inside internic or its isp. my own mrtg graphs are clean for this period, and internic was the only site i couldn't reach at high bandwidth. f.root-servers.net was lame for two days because it could not fetch COM from NSI. yet NSI, in its statements to reporters and to users, are of the following form. it is REALLY DAMNED HARD to not get pissed off at this kind of BS. *MY* server was not sending fatally bad answers, *THEIRS* were. i've been in touch with wired news and have been queried about this from CNN and i'll be telling the whole story to every reporter who can reach me. i've seen holtzman's comments about "unreliable volunteer servers" in the WSJ in the past and i'm no longer willing to sit by and be slandered when it was NSI's problem all along. (tcpdump doesn't lie.) (a total of five servers were having trouble, of two different kinds, so this was a complex failure situation.) ------- Forwarded Message Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1998 18:18:45 -0800 (PST) To: Paul A Vixie <paul@vix.com> Subject: Re: FYI F.ROOT-SERVERS.NET In-Reply-To: <199811120201.SAA09783@bb.rc.vix.com> Oops! Sorry to bug you. When I called them their folks told me "That server isn't run by Internic so you'll have to contact them about the fact that they run an unreliable server..." What a bunch of dweebs. Take care,
network solutions (the current internic contractor) was having connectivity problems that made it impossible for us to fetch the zone. all is now well.
Just an FYI, but I don't think your root server is properly configured. Internic thinks it should be authoritative for .com. Maybe they have their SOA wrong?
------- End of Forwarded Message
On Wed, Nov 11, 1998 at 06:28:21PM -0800, Paul A Vixie wrote:
i've been in touch with wired news and have been queried about this from CNN and i'll be telling the whole story to every reporter who can reach me. i've seen holtzman's comments about "unreliable volunteer servers" in the WSJ in the past and i'm no longer willing to sit by and be slandered when it was NSI's problem all along. (tcpdump doesn't lie.)
Paul, you might want to pass on this anecdote from me... A couple months ago, when I was talking to a couple people at NetSol about their failure to perform certain tasks that they were supposed to be performing, David Holtzman blew up at me. He was incensed that I'd even *imply* that they weren't perfect or even that they weren't doing an adequate job. So it seems that he might have a hard time admitting there was a problem. FY(and everyone else's)I. -- Steve Sobol [sjsobol@nacs.net] Part-time Support Droid [support@nacs.net] NACS Spaminator [abuse@nacs.net] Spotted on a bumper sticker: "Possum. The other white meat."
At 9:02 PM -0800 11/11/98, Steven J. Sobol wrote:
On Wed, Nov 11, 1998 at 06:28:21PM -0800, Paul A Vixie wrote:
i've seen holtzman's comments about "unreliable volunteer servers" in the WSJ in the past and i'm no longer willing to sit by and be slandered when it was NSI's problem all along. (tcpdump doesn't lie.)
Paul, you might want to pass on this anecdote from me...
A couple months ago, when I was talking to a couple people at NetSol about their failure to perform certain tasks that they were supposed to be performing, David Holtzman blew up at me. He was incensed that I'd even *imply* that they weren't perfect or even that they weren't doing an adequate job.
and then of course there is the spammage... Sender: Owner-Admin <owner-admin@LISTS.NETSOL.COM> From: List Manager Account <listmngr@LISTS.NETSOL.COM> Subject: Network Solutions' E-Commerce Update To: ADMIN1@LISTS.NETSOL.COM Dear Customer, You are a valued customer and we want to help increase and protect the value of your domain name. As a free added benefit of your domain name registration, we would like to send you our "E-Commerce Update" from time to time. blah blah blah... Network Solutions - the world's leading provider of domain name services -- together with VeriSign... blah blah...need i go on? nothing like gathering a captive audience and then spamming them, eh? gee, like we had a choice but to do business with them??? give them our info??? sigh...uce from the mouth that feeds on us all. don't that just take the cake? melinda ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ life is a constant stream of people coming into and out of your life... sometimes you get to grab hold of one or two of them for a while... ima@badhabit.org http://www.ircd.com/meldatlist.html PGP Fingerprint: 5E9F 31EF DF11 A3EF F3E4 CB3C 9F42 2EC8 BCD0 C607 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
participants (3)
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melinda b. thompson -
Paul A Vixie -
Steven J. Sobol