North American Network Operators Group

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Re: Internic hosage (fwd)

  • From: Dean Anderson
  • Date: Fri Mar 20 16:50:51 1998

It seems you upset that there is a foreign domain hosted in the US, and
that there is a probably useless and incorrect host record in the whois
database. There is nothing terribly wrong with this.

You seem to be assuming that hosting a foreign-registered domain in the US
is evidence of some kind of deception or conspiracy.  I just don't see any.
Indeed, I just registered youdontwant.to via the Tonic registry. No
deception. Perhaps I'll track anti-spam terrorism on
perhaps.youdontwant.to. ;-) **
Unfortunately, Tonic doesn't seem to have a whois server.  In any case,
Internic doesn't have anything to do with it.  As Eric said, but you won't
accept.

Whois Host records are informational, until they are entered into a domain
record.  In a domain record, they give one a nice tool to update the
nameservers of many hosted domains with only update. There isn't any way to
check them on creation. You can only authenticate updates to the records.
Given that ARIN runs a whois server and Tonic doesn't explains why there is
a host record but not a domain record (except in DNS).  Whois Host records
only have effect once their handle is entered into the domain record.
Updates to the host record are also usually authenticated in simple or
sophisticated ways.  But again, the domain record is owned by Tonic, not
Internic, so complaints to Internic will not be useful, or effective.
Tonic, incidentally, does appear to have working password authentication on
its domain updates.  Tonic assigns handles separately from Internic, so the
existance of host record in another registry doen't mean it could be
accidentaly put into the domain record. This host information may be in
fact be wrong or just useless or just informational but whatever the case,
it doesn't have any effect on anything.

While a bogus host record could possibly be some foolish failed attempt at
spoofing the domain, it could also (more likely) be the remnants of some
past or future association. In this particular case, I'd bet that someone
incorrectly added a host record to Internic, instead of Tonic, by simple
mistake. The owner of the domain probably knows which. Its mere existance
doesn't mean anything conspiratorial is going on.  Perhaps a quiet message
to the domain owner noting this looks a bit crufty might be nice. But there
is nothing for either Internic or Nanog to do. If its conspiracy you are
looking to expose, your time is probably better spent looking for the
second iceberg that really sank the Titanic.

While there are perhaps real complaints to be made about Internics
authentication, this is not an example of one of them.

		--Dean

** (Seriously, I did mean to follow-up the anti-spam terrorism thread last
week--If people email me privately, I will try to organize tracking of
anti-spam criminal activities.  I also want to organize a group of
moderates to advocate rational laws regulating spam. Many of the people who
are talking with legislators right now are radicals or just ignorant. We
really need some moderates to get involved.  As you can see, there are some
very misguided people out there talking to even more ignorant people in the
Press and in Legislative bodies.)


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