[72683] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: VeriSign's rapid DNS updates in .com/.net
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Robert L Mathews)
Thu Jul 22 20:24:49 2004
Date: Thu, 22 Jul 2004 17:24:07 -0700
From: Robert L Mathews <lists@tigertech.com>
To: <nanog@merit.edu>
Errors-To: owner-nanog-outgoing@merit.edu
At 7/22/04 10:08 AM, Paul Vixie wrote:
>the primary beneficiaries of this
>new functionality are spammers and other malfeasants
I think you're suggesting that such people will register domain names and
use them right away (which may be true), and that the lack of a delay
enables them to do things they couldn't otherwise do (which isn't).
Plenty of spammers register lots of .com domain names and let them sit
for a little while before using them; if you're a committed spammer, it's
obviously trivial to just get three days ahead of the game. The policy
change doesn't allow evildoers to do anything they couldn't already do
with a tiny amount of forethought (or by registering a .biz, .org, .info
or .us domain, for that matter).
But the new policy does allow normal people to do something they couldn't
otherwise do: have a working .com/.net Web site and e-mail in a few
minutes. That's good for legitimate domain owner happiness.
By far the number one question customers ask my (hosting) company when
they sign up is "When will it start working?". It's almost embarrassing
to tell these poor people "ahem... it probably won't work for a day or
so, and it's a bit random -- your friends might find it works before you
do, so please don't complain if that happens", etc.
It's certainly true that a day's wait isn't the end of the world, but
these people are anxious, and it is a source of confusion, bother and
worry for them.
I welcome the change.
--
Robert L Mathews, Tiger Technologies http://www.tigertech.net/
"There are many who dare not kill themselves for fear of what the
neighbours might say." -- Cyril Connolly