Reality Check

Thu Mar 15 00:44:10 UTC 2001

On Wed, Mar 14, 2001 at 09:13:17PM +0000, Jim Dixon had this to say:
> 
> Spelling out the obvious: let's say that VBCnet started referring 
> our customers to the wrong name server to resolve names in .COM.
> How many minutes would it be before the phones began ringing off 
> the hook?  I can assure you that we would fix it really fast, and
> take steps to make sure that we didn't screw up again.

problem arises when individuals or organizations _purposefully_ subvert
nameserver resolution. This entire thread has not been about the possibility
of 'accidental' collisions, but more about who has the right to be the One
True foo.com - if there are two entities each claiming that right, who do
you believe, and why?

How do you define 'wrong' as quoted above when both destinations claim to
be right, and only a court can settle their differences? If you arbitrarily
choose, the entity you excluded, and probably some segment of your customers,
will be very unhappy with you for 'censoring' or otherwise 'choosing' for them
where 'foo.com' traffic will go, rather than allowing them to choose
themselves.

The real problem here, the one that needs to be stopped before it can start,
is the possibility of more than one correct answer to any given question "where
does this domain point to?" No matter _who_ you ask, you should _always_ receive
the same unique answer. The Internet in its current incarnation REQUIRES
globally unique addressing. As soon as you have more than one Correct Answer,
things begin to break, and lawyers come eagerly knocking.

-- 
Scott Francis           scott@   [work:] v i r t u a l i s . c o m
Systems Analyst     darkuncle@   [home:] d a r k u n c l e . n e t
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