[LINK] DNS outage?

[Stilgherrian]

On 29/07/2009, at 9:23 AM, Paul Brooks wrote:
> Stilgherrian wrote:
>> "The Internet" isn't one thing that's of equal reliability or   
>> redundancy. It's a patchwork of many, many disparate networks held   
>> together with string and Blu-Tak. It's a wonder the damn thing  
>> works  at all.
>>
> Not really a wonder - it works because the initial assumptions were  
> so pessimistic that string and Blu-Tak forms a good enough foundation.
> The 'founding fathers' started with the assumption that the  
> underlying networks were unreliable, and would spontaneously drop,  
> re-order, delay and duplicate packets, and designed the protocols  
> accordingly to tolerate and work (almost) regardless.
>
> Unfortunately it is a different design assumption that is biting us  
> now. An initial assumption that the primary goal was to get the  
> information delivered irrespective of time - within seconds/minutes/ 
> hours/days didn't matter, as long as it got through. With the rise  
> of audio/video streaming and other real-time requirements, today  
> timeliness matters also.

And, to flip it in the other direction, NASA is starting to use IP  
connectivity for communication with its spacecraft. The protocols need  
to be adapted to circumstances where it might be tens of minutes  
before you get the confirmation that a packet got through. All  
fascinating stuff!

Stil


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