[LINK] DNS outage?

[Stilgherrian]

On 29/07/2009, at 9:43 AM, Jan Whitaker wrote:
> At 09:33 AM 29/07/2009, Stilgherrian wrote:
>> Indeed, I tend to agree with that sort of network decision. On the
>> Internet, you're only responsible for the operation of your own
>> network and how it connects to your peers. What happens inside  
>> someone
>> else's network -- which includes the backbone links -- is not your
>> problem and none of your business.
>
> I must disagree here. Ping/trace is a tool to find out where things
> are stopping. If it's in the street, then I can tell. If it's at the
> Melbourne switch, I know it's probably recognised by the company,
> whereas my street break may not be. If it stops at my modem, time to
> reboot. If I can get all the way through to my overseas hosted site
> for mail, but my website isn't responding, tells me there's something
> else wrong. Why should a CARRIER decide if I can make my way to a
> server that is not part of their control whatsoever?


Why should they decide? Um, because it's their network and they can do  
with it as they please.

If you want guaranteed access to a certain remote computer, then put  
in a private network. If that's too expensive, then use the public  
Internet and put up with its faults -- and with the fact that your  
packets are routed "at random" through which networks they choose,  
following whatever rules they choose. That's the deal.

Anyway, a fault is not a carrier "deciding" that you can't reach a  
place. It's a fault. There's no intent.

In an ideal world, what I reckon should happen then is tha fault  
reports are passed along the chain. YOU shouldn't be troubleshooting  
problems in someone else's network, THEY should be. Unless, perhaps,  
if you peer with them, in which case the troubleshooting is a  
collaborative thing.

Of course this is not an ideal world, but a cheap-as world, so unless  
there's some glaring problem that makes it obvious there's a problem  
in a particular supplier's own network, they shrug their shoulders and  
ignore it.

Of course, how much network engineering and troubleshooting do people  
expect to get for $29.95 a month? ;)

I come back to my original point, too. If the fault ends up being in a  
remote network, what are you actually going to DO with this information?

Stil


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