Network Solutions is now in the wringer

Roeland M.J. Meyer rmeyer at mhsc.com
Sun Mar 28 09:59:39 UTC 1999


At 10:43 PM 3/27/99 -0500, Dean Robb wrote:
>
>At 01:22 3/27/99 -0600, Sean Donelan wrote:
>>
>>pceasy at norfolk.INfi.NET (Dean Robb) writes:
>>>While not a network operator, I think it would be most prudent to consider
>>>and discuss (among those who ARE netops) what do to if, say, the root
>>>server were suddenly comletely unaccessible for several days/permanently
>>>for *whatever* reason.  
>>
>>Duh, isn't that why there is more than one root server in the world?

Hello Dean,

After all that happened last year, when NSI kept hosing the root-servers,
most network operators are keeping local root-zone file and are prepared to
go "local" at the drop of your hat, if they don't run that way by default.
I don't know if it's written up in an RFC, but it is definitely recommended
practice. Those that didn't do this learned the hard way why they should.
At MHSC, we always keep last weeks root-zone file. When the root-servers
are corrupted is already too late to get last weeks good copy.

The gTLD roots are another story, but they are actually more redundant than
the root-servers. As regards the ccTLD roots, well some are better than
others. 'nuff said there.

I documented at least 4 times when the root-servers were FUBAR, last year,
for more than a few hours. The documentation was done on the IFWP list as
part of the debates there. One incident was days long. In the event that
NSI goes down for the count, this method can keep status quo for quite a
while. However, there is no backup for the gTLD registry. If NSI goes away,
no new SLDs can be registered, in the IANA gTLDs. IOW, we'd have to come up
with a new COM/NET/ORG/EDU registry (GOV/MIL do their own anyway).



___________________________________________________ 
Roeland M.J. Meyer - 
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