NSF.gov Unavailable

Thu Oct 28 00:49:13 UTC 2010

On Wed, Oct 27, 2010 at 4:55 PM, Nathan Eisenberg
<nathan at atlasnetworks.us> wrote:
>> http://www.arlnow.com/2010/10/27/nsf-building-evacuated-in-ballston-
>> after-apparent-lightning-strike/
>>
>> lightning strike -> electrical fire
>
> At the science foundation.  Nature has a sense of irony.

The real irony is that the folks who brought you the NSFnet apparently
didn't get the memo vis-a-vis geographic diversity in one's secondary
nameservers (rfc 2182 et al).  Always good for a few yuks when
ill-mannered MTAs start getting unhappy and dropping mail on the floor
rather than queueing because they can't resolve the name rather than
can't can't connect to the destination (which just about everyone
handles fairly well).

nsf.gov.		86400	IN	NS	swirl.nsf.gov.
nsf.gov.		86400	IN	NS	TWISTER.nsf.gov.
nsf.gov.		86400	IN	NS	WHIRL.nsf.gov.
;; Received 139 bytes from 66.207.175.172#53(f.usadotgov.net) in 70 ms

dig: couldn't get address for 'WHIRL.nsf.gov': not found
%

This happened to the University of Eastern Kentucky a couple of years
back during the floods there, and I'm sure it happens to other
lower-profile sites on a daily basis.  I think there is a lesson in
here for the community.

Drive Slow,
Paul