Computer systems blamed for feeble hurricane response?

Tue Sep 13 14:01:00 UTC 2005

On Tue, 13 Sep 2005, Fergie (Paul Ferguson) wrote:

> It quoted a Department of Health official as saying every email it had 
> sent to FEMA staff bounced. "They need a better internet provider during 
> disasters," the Journal quoted her or him as saying.
>
> A number of US agencies made desperate calls to the Department of 
> Homeland Security and to Congresswomen and men, the article claimed. 
>
> The newspaper did not say which computer systems FEMA uses.

$ dig mx fema.gov
;; ANSWER SECTION:
fima.org.               3600    IN      MX      0 smtp.secureserver.net.
fima.org.               3600    IN      MX      10 mailstore1.secureserver.net.

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
fima.org.               3600    IN      NS      PARK5.secureserver.net.
fima.org.               3600    IN      NS      PARK6.secureserver.net.

[This is Godaddy and their datacenter is obviously in Arizona]

$ dig fima.org
[snip]
$ ;; ANSWER SECTION:
fema.gov.               1800    IN      A       205.128.1.44

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
fema.gov.               1800    IN      NS      ns.fema.gov.
fema.gov.               1800    IN      NS      ns2.fema.gov.

$ whois -h completewhois.com 205.128.1.44
[snip]
Level 3 Communications, Inc. LVLT-ORG-205-128 (NET-205-128-0-0-1)
                                   205.128.0.0 - 205.131.255.255
Federal Emergency Management Agency FEDEMERGENCY-1-18 (NET-205-128-1-0-1)
                                   205.128.1.0 - 205.128.1.127

Note: They also have 192.206.40.0/24 (not routed), 205.142.100.0/22
(not routed), 64.119.224.0/20 (not in bgp) and 166.112.0.0/16
(announced by 2828 - XO).

While its possible that L3 or XO could have been down with one of
their southern links, I really dont think it would effect their
Washington, DC customers.

-- 
William Leibzon
Elan Networks
william at elan.net