Re: Advisory — D-root is changing its IPv4 address on the 3rd of January.

Sun Dec 16 04:44:14 UTC 2012

If your grandmother were running her own recursive DNS resolver, I expect she would have no difficulty understanding the message.

It is the young-uns that have difficulty comprehending (and using) the English language.

Sent from Samsung Mobile

-------- Original message --------
From: bmanning at vacation.karoshi.com 
Date:  
To: Nick Hilliard <nick at foobar.org> 
Cc: "nanog at nanog.org Group" <nanog at nanog.org> 
Subject: Re: Advisory — D-root is changing its IPv4 address on the 3rd of January. 

On Sun, Dec 16, 2012 at 12:45:32AM +0000, Nick Hilliard wrote:
> On 15/12/2012 23:07, David Conrad wrote:
> > The handwringing over this issue is a bit over the top.
> 
> It's a question of what's procedurally sensible.  Sensible things would
> include longer notice of the impending change to the root zone, more
> widespread notice of what's happening and generally not poking around with
> really important bits of the Internet at times which are well known for
> having configuration freezes and/or when many people are going to be on
> holidays.  There are many bits of the internet where changes will only
> affect small areas, but this change will affect everyone even if they
> people don't realise it (and yes, it probably won't affect them visibly
> because of root cache repriming).

how much notice would you like?

> 
> Other sensible things might include:
> 
> - liaising with operating system vendors and recurser servers code authors
> and providing them with extra advance notice so that they can roll these
> changes into their code in a structured way.  Software update release
> cycles often take many months to roll out, particularly for non OSS code.

its not clear this has not been done.  nor is it clear
that it would be needed, given the bootstrap methods that have
been current for more than a decade.

> - perhaps some targeted localisation of the d.root-servers.org notice so
> that more than 15% of the world population can read it (english == 5%
> native speakers, 10% second language)?

its not clear this has not been done.
where you you localise this notice and what methods would you use?

> Lots of people are aware that resolver dns servers will automatically
> reprime their root cache without manual intervention.  However, not
> everyone will realise it and a random punter who looks at this notice and
> doesn't understand root cache mechanics may well think that they need to
> start updating their DNS configuration files on Jan 3.  It's not clear from
> the change notification that you don't necessarily need to do this.

true - there is an expectation that the reader has a basic 
understanding of the DNS.  My grandmother would be confused, but 
would clearly understand from the notice that there were many months
before the existing system would change.  Perhaps the notice should
suggest talking with your service provider if you don't understand
or have questions.  

> This change wasn't planned over a coffee last thursday morning.  It's
> obviously been on the cards for several years, so asking for more carefully
> structured notice in a procedurally sensible sort of way isn't an
> unreasonable thing to expect as part of the migration plan.

are these all the points that concern you?  are there others?
lets get them all on the table.

> 
> Nick
> 