[MUD-Dev] OT: Mail not getting to the list

[clawrenc at cup.hp.com]

In <33DE1226.D05BFB56 at darklock.com>, on 07/29/97 
   at 06:03 PM, Caliban Tiresias Darklock <caliban at darklock.com> said:

>coder at ibm.net wrote:
>> 
>> It turns out that Network Services, the guys that are in charge of the
>> world-wide top level domains (things like .com, .edu, .nl, etc)
>> screwed up and corrupted the top level name servers.  

>Actually, as I understand it, AlterNIC -- a competitive company to
>Network Services -- exploited a bug in the DNS standard to redirect
>internet DNS servers to its own (incomplete) database in an attempt
>to usurp the 'monopoly' held by NIS on the top level domains.

While true, this occured about a week earlier than the incident I
refer to.  It also did not disrupt mail services planet-wide.  That
particular feat took active idiocy on the part of an NIS drone posting
bum data to almost all the TLD servers about a week after AlterNIC's
demonstration.

>NIS is trying to recover from a literal attack on the domain name
>services themselves. They've done pretty well, all things considered...

Yeah, right.  The "attack" was of sub-undergrad complexity.  Any one
of us could probably have coded it and done it ourselves with less
than an hour's work.  The fix is almost more trivial.  NIS have
demonstrated both incredible lethargy and incompetance in handling
what was in all essence a very very simple spoof attack.

> The DNS standards are also under review...

I've been thinking of writing up an RFC for what I grandly call
"ADNS", or "Anarchic Domain Name System".  ADNS would allow anyone, at
any time, to set up and run a new TLD.  There would be no single root,
or even a virtual root to the domain tree, just a broadly distributed
virtual root maintained via quorum by the already existant TLD
servers.

>In short, NIS is not to blame.

Not true.  It was an NIS drone who posted to bum data directly to the
TLD servers, AFTER the InterNIC demonstration had occured and
finished.

Note: This is off-topic.  Direct email only please.

--
J C Lawrence                           Internet: claw at null.net
(Contractor)                           Internet: coder at ibm.net
---------------(*)               Internet: clawrenc at cup.hp.com
...Honorary Member Clan McFUD -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...