Slashdot Mirror
.org Registry Offline - Not
einer writes "According to the The Register, the registry containing all of the .org tld information has fallen off the planet. The article is light on details, and doesn't list any potential consequences. " It looks like it's the server that maintains the records for who owns what .org domain - and a big "I Told You So" for Verisign. And of course, now it seems to be working just fine. Good work, PIR.
I make it a point to never visit any .org sites at all. Vile things, they are. I haven't visited a single .org website in over 2 years.
Slashdotter are stupid and biased.
Because you never know where to find a good orgy....
I just did a whois query on my org domain. It works fine.
now I can't lookup slashdot.org anymore.
...in a few hours, slashdot.org will redirect to microsoft.com or riaa.com...
And I thought the blender.org era was a good thing... Things like this support the corporate credibility in the IT ages. *sigh*
One thing puzzles me though, isn't ISOC managing .org nowadays? Or are they still going to? At any rate, I think ISOC will do a better job than Verisign will ever do anyday.
Verisign licensed SCO's Unix Source code on Monday...
Terrorist .Org-anizations.
This is why everything should still be IP based! (j/k)
Just be thankful all .cx domains are still available.
:P
I don't know if I could make it through the day without a trip to a certain site.
Responsible servers changed, all is well. Nothing to see here. Move along.
.ORG WHOIS information is provided to assist persons in
jrw@gerontius:~$ whois slashdot.org
NOTICE: Access to
determining the contents of a domain name registration record in the PIR
registry database. The data in this record is provided by Public Interest Registry
for informational purposes only, and PIR does not guarantee its
accuracy. This service is intended only for query-based access. You agree
that you will use this data only for lawful purposes and that, under no
circumstances will you use this data to: (a) allow, enable, or otherwise
support the transmission by e-mail, telephone, or facsimile of mass
unsolicited, commercial advertising or solicitations to entities other than
the data recipient's own existing customers; or (b) enable high volume,
automated, electronic processes that send queries or data to the systems of
Registry Operator or any ICANN-Accredited Registrar, except as reasonably
necessary to register domain names or modify existing registrations. All
rights reserved. PIR reserves the right to modify these terms at any
time. By submitting this query, you agree to abide by this policy.
Domain ID:D2289308-LROR
Domain Name:SLASHDOT.ORG
Created On:05-Oct-1997 04:00:00 UTC
Last Updated On:15-Jan-2003 01:48:23 UTC
Expiration Date:04-Oct-2005 04:00:00 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:R11-LROR
Status:OK
Registrant ID:11-C
Registrant Name:SEE SPONSORING REGISTRAR
Registrant Street1:Whois Server:whois.opensrs.net
Registrant Street2:Referral URL:www.opensrs.org
Registrant City:N/A
Registrant Postal Code:N/A
Registrant Country:CA
Registrant Email:not@available.org
Admin ID:11-C
Admin Name:SEE SPONSORING REGISTRAR
Admin Street1:Whois Server:whois.opensrs.net
Admin Street2:Referral URL:www.opensrs.org
Admin City:N/A
Admin Postal Code:N/A
Admin Country:CA
Admin Email:not@available.org
Billing ID:11-C
Billing Name:SEE SPONSORING REGISTRAR
Billing Street1:Whois Server:whois.opensrs.net
Billing Street2:Referral URL:www.opensrs.org
Billing City:N/A
Billing Postal Code:N/A
Billing Country:CA
Billing Email:not@available.org
Tech ID:11-C
Tech Name:SEE SPONSORING REGISTRAR
Tech Street1:Whois Server:whois.opensrs.net
Tech Street2:Referral URL:www.opensrs.org
Tech City:N/A
Tech Postal Code:N/A
Tech Country:CA
Tech Email:not@available.org
Name Server:NS1.VASOFTWARE.COM
Name Server:NS2.VASOFTWARE.COM
Name Server:NS3.VASOFTWARE.COM
I just hope that MS and others don't hit up OSS for this; the .org registry was the first to run a non Oracle\MS SQL\DB2 database (it runs/ran Postgre).
I don't want Postgre to be the underlying problem in this because it could easily destroy their reputation.
But, this was a concern when the whole TLD split-up was initially suggested. I'm no fan of Verisign but, Network Solutions and Verisign ran a tight ship. This type of thing just didn't happen. ICANN made a big mistake with their breakup of the registrars and this is likely to become a frequent problem.
The worst part is, with the way the resgistrars are distributed now, the blame game is going to be rediculous with everyone pointing at the other guy. In the past there was no question as to who was responsible for any issues.
Why do we have to have a system that relies on single points of failure for each of the main TLDs? Each "maintainer" of the TLD is subject to problems - both mechanical (system failures, congestion, etc.) and human (stupidity, politics, luck).
I don't think the founding fathers of the Internet thought it of it being like this.
looks like monopolies aren't fun for just microsoft. now we all feel the brunt.
Mike
And not long ago I read the .org was switching to PostgreSQL from DB2 for keeping zone info.. might be a corrupt postgresql database ?
> now I can't lookup slashdot.org anymore.
/. is doing real work...
Which isn't that big a deal, till you realize that the alternative to
Oh the humanity!
the .org tld information has fallen off the planet.
I knew the earth was flat but nobody believed me.
"the fax machine is nothing but a waffle iron with a phone attached to it." - Grandpa Simpson
[whois.crsnic.net]
Whois Server Version 1.3
Domain names in the .com and .net domains can now be registered
with many different competing registrars. Go to http://www.internic.net
for detailed information.
No match for "SLASHDOT.ORG".
>>> Last update of whois database: Mon, 19 May 2003 06:05:55 EDT <<<
pr0n - keeping monitor glass spotless since 1981.
bags I get to name to problem;-)
p e= org&command=slashdot
not quite as bad as the day the internet died as all it means in real terms is a few people will try to buy domain names that arn't available.
anyone want to buy slashdot.org?
http://www.domaincity.co.uk/cgi-bin/whois.pl?ty
it seems to be for sale, or maybe not
sparkes
blog and junk
whois slashdot.org
.com and .net domains can now be registered
[whois.crsnic.net]
Whois Server Version 1.3
Domain names in the
with many different competing registrars. Go to http://www.internic.net
for detailed information.
No match for "SLASHDOT.ORG".
>>> Last update of whois database: Mon, 19 May 2003 06:05:55 EDT
66.35.250.150 slashdot.org
198.186.202.135 NS1.VASOFTWARE.COM
198.186.202.136 NS2.VASOFTWARE.COM
66.35.250.12 NS3.VASOFTWARE.COM
Then your life can continue as normal, despite verisign's fuckup.
the AC
Hemos is like...sci-fi fans;he thinks technology is cool, but he hasn't bothered to understand the science it's based on
I think I can hear the strangled, ecstatic shriek of Larry Ellison cumming in his pants all the way over here on the east coast.
pr0n - keeping monitor glass spotless since 1981.
If this happens again, what could happen? Could Joe Blow steal slashdot.org for his own use? If it happens to .cx, could slashdot steal goatse.cx (I want that to happen)?
yes, I get the same for my org domain but it has to do with the way *.org domains are handled. I hope somebody can explain this as I'm not sure exactly why this happens.
And of course, now it seems to be working just fine.
The sky is falling! The sky is falling!
Oh, wait...
In walking, just walk. In sitting, just sit. Above all, don't wobble.
-- Yun-Men
Seriously... Are registry services going to see fallout due to having to reverse and refund erroneous .org registrations that their servers processed during the outage? This might also depend upon whether their scripts depend upon the PIR servers, and whether the scripts distinguish between "error" and "domain not registered" conditions.
Anyone who followed the .Org bidding process knew this day was coming. ICANN's summary dismissal of the IMS/ISC bid as being too technical ("Internet is hard", says ICANN) in favor of 2-bit registrars who "white washed" their record by getting a major NGO to sit on the board made it inevitable.
Here's journalistic integrity for you: a story that reports you cannot reach .org sites posted on and read from a .org site. That's like posting: "you are unable to read this message." Way to go guys.
Join Tor today!
All our bases belong to them!!
:
Check by yourself
$ whois slashdot.org
Found referral to whois.opensrs.net.
Registrant:
Microsoft Corporation
One Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA 98052
US
Domain name: SLASHDOT.ORG
(...)
http://www.pir.org/whois/ I ran a few whois queries straight off of pir's site, so the information is still floating around somewhere.....
no, you're confusing the DNS record with who actually owns it, the registrant information. DNS should still work for a good while...
Related?
Glad you can see me, at least. I'm still having problems, but I suspect they'll work themselves out.
Oh - I'm not going to tell you my TiVo password, I'm afraid. I don't want you to see how sad and derivative my choie in TV programmes is.
--- My dad's political betting
...of trying to knock out the "First Posts" trolls.
Brutal but effective!
I guess Im gunna have to buy my linux upgrades from Best Buy now instead of downloading them.
I was the source for the story on The Register. You'll see in the detail that it depends on which whois server you use. Crsnic is the one that's misreporting and it's supposed to be provide united results. Looks like PIR isn't talking to Crsnic properly.
Try this:
whois -h whois.publicinterestregistry.net yourhost.org
The information still seems to be there, or is it only still there because it has not propagated a new, empty list????
DNS is one thing. The records of who owns them is different. If that were to die irretrievably, there would be no way of knowing who owned what, and who could re-register it.
bad sig...no donut.
Slashdot.org is not accessible any more!
The productivity of my IT company will rise rise riiiise!!
I don't think Verisign runs the .org TLD anymore, does it? ....
Why was this modded down? Its true. Perhaps the oppertunity to flame verisign was too tempting.
A news site posting a story that it's gone down.
Verisign has a history of being difficult to deal with, naturally people like to flame them when they can. This is all just probably some sort of communications problem somewhere. Someplace someone used a 1 where it should have been a 0 or something. It'll be ironed out before the afternoon is over.
This problem has been around for months... In order to look up WHOIS information on .ORG domains, you have to point your WHOIS client at whois.pir.org. For some reason, whois.internic.net isn't redirecting the appropriate information. I first noticed the problem back in early March.
I don't think the .org registry ever went down. The only Informative message here (IMHO) was from jrwilk01: "Responsible servers changed, all is well. Nothing to see here. Move along." It was marked Redundant and scored 0, just because the moderators only saw the whois record!
Those of you with obsolete whois clients can do something like this:
$ whois slashdot.org@whois.publicinterestregistry.org...
Billing Street1:Whois Server:whois.opensrs.net
...
$ whois slashdot.org@whois.opensrs.net
Or just go to whois.bw.org.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
If that's not the right IP, talk to Register.com.
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
I did a who is and I got this:
Domain ID:D2289308-LROR
Domain Name:SLASHDOT.ORG
Created On:05-Oct-1997 04:00:00 UTC
Last Updated On:15-Jan-2003 01:48:23 UTC
Expiration Date:04-Oct-2005 04:00:00 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:R11-LROR
Status:OK
Registrant ID:11-C
Registrant Name:SEE SPONSORING REGISTRAR
Registrant Street1:Whois Server:whois.opensrs.net
Registrant Street2:Referral URL:www.opensrs.org
Registrant City:N/A
Registrant Postal Code:N/A
Registrant Country:CA
Registrant Email:not@available.org
It looks like someone is a annymous coward.
-------
Support Indy Music. Buy
I wouldn't go villifying anyone just yet.
-transiit
Maybe they should've picked a DBMS with replication (no, not MySQL).
Thanks,
--
Matt
I searched several whois services for my own .org domain. The servers which gave an update date of 5/15 had the right data. A couple which gave the most recent update of 5/19 said it was for sale. Several sites didn't give a last update time, and the results varied.
It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows. - Epictetus
Looks like Jason Blair got picked up by The Register for this story. First Peter Arnett gets picked up by a UK Tabloid, now this. Those wacky Britts!
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
Microsoft hates "ORGs", so I dug out an URL for slashdot.org without the .org part:s .slashdot.com (Don't include the space, press the link instead.)
http://developers.developers.developers.developer
Irene KHAAAAAAN!
My .org domain ran fine all weekend. I do not believe there is any issue of real importance behind all this fooferaw.
.org domain without specifying a valid .org whois server. THE SKY IS FALLING! Guess what, you can't whois a .mil domain without specifying a valid .mil whois server. Nothing to report here, system works as advertised.
.org names seem to resolve fine, and I got a total of ZERO problem reports over the weekend from our 24x7 .org site. Did anyone else have a real DNS problem, or is this all a case of the Register placing too much value on the compiled-in defaults for the whois client?
You can't "whois" a
The important function of a registrar is to feed names into the root nameservers. I don't see any indication of any flaws in that process. All the
Anyone?
No matter how long it was on the front page, this article sullied the reputation of the .org folks, and they deserve an apology and a retraction.
Unless, of course, the Reg doesn't take responsibility for what it publishes. Like a lot of so called "news" sites out there. Heck, even slashdot posts retractions once in a blue moon or two.
--- It is not the things we do which we regret the most, but the things which we don't do.
The poster said it was an "I told you so" for Verisign. Meaning that Verisign can now say "I told you so" to the folks they gave up .org regs to. The article covers this.
bad sig...no donut.
"By submitting this query, you agree to abide by this policy."
Interestingly enough, although http://www.microsoft.org doesn't resolve to anything, http://microsoft.slashdot.org/ does.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
As any Texan will tell you, BBQ != barbecue. They're two totally different things!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Apparently, we're all dumb as lamp posts and can't bother to read the part of the whois query on our boxes that says this whois server only handles .net and .com
We're going to go back to school, we should be ready to post articles worth reading in a few short years, til then, there's always the BBC, eh?
--- It is not the things we do which we regret the most, but the things which we don't do.
Yeah, that code in MySQL that makes sure users use updated whois clients is really cool. PostgreSQL might get a similar feature soon, but by then MySQL will have an even better feature that prevents The Register from publishing bogus articles about servers being down when they're up. MySQL rocks! Go MySQL!
It's premature to speculate on the cause of the outage
On a more serious note, it's premature to even say there was an outage.
It would appear that, although the original story is still available at the full URL, the Register has taken down all links to it from other areas of the site.
This would be the same site whose journalists often raise an almighty fuss when other publications do exactly the same thing.
I guess they're not double standards when they're your double standards.
Slashdot moderators don't like original humor.
He should've made a 'joke' about slashdotting or bluescreens. That's a sure +5.
You forgot Simpsons Quotes
Now, how can we mod down the original article and get it off the main page? :)
Is this why when I tried to move one of my .org domains from Dotster to Godaddy that it didnt go through? I moved a .net domain and the .org at the same time. The .net went through this morning.. :(
-
aphex
I Steal Music!
Epic Games and Sony Corp have released a new Unreal Tournament 2003 MMORPG version of Capture-The-Flag called DOMAIN WARS... Beta tests were completed over the weekend.
-- Gary Goldberg KA3ZYW 301/249-6501 AIM:OgGreeb Digital Marketing Inc., Bowie, MD
Actually I belive their was a real 'issue' (I hesitate to use the word 'problem') this afernoon (at least at around 12:47 BST), and it was fixed at that time.
It seems there is disagreement and confusion around what the problem was, but there was one, and something was done to aleviate it not much more than a minute after this article was posted. I think a lot of people where confused as to what was, but I think I might be able to shed a rather dim light on it. Unhelpfully, I can't tell you what the issue was but I can give you the symptoms..
I tried the following series of lookups from FreeBSD (using the default FreeBSD whois) all in the space of a minute:
whois slashdot.org - Returned Broken Entry
whois slashdot.com - Worked
whois slashdot.org - Returned Broken Entry
whois slashdot.com - Worked
whois slashdot.org - Worked
All further lookups for *.org using the default whois server on FreeBSD's whois return fine. I didn't retype these commands (used the UP arrow to cyle through the previous command in my history) so it's not as if I made a spelling mistake.
The 'Broken Entries' had the domain but did not return any contact information, and instead stopped short and returned what looked like an error code at the end.
As I've said this appeared to be fixed just after this article was posted (almost immediately so), so it's evident to me that the status of something was changed (and someone is not owning up to it).
Sadly, you'll have to take my word on this, my scroll buffer in gnome-terminal was too short (due to it eating up memory and processor speed for reasons I'm too lazy to investigate) and the buffer is gone for ever (thanks the the overly long disclamiers present on whois lookups).
My 2c.
Well, not completely - they (politicians & businesses) don't like it when you collect & organize information about THEM (history, legal records, voting records, financial records, advertising records, etc), although they're quite happy to be able to collect such information about you.
As you should have noticed, the output from whois.pir.org isn't really helpful, because currently it is just a hacked reference to other whois-servers. So you won't see real useful data.
Try gwhois (apt-get install gwhois). Not only will gwhois query whois.pir.org as well after that the appropiate (referenced) whois server and give you real usable results, gwhois also strives to know about most other TLDs, and will query automatically the right whois-servers and can even query web forms for those broken TLDs, who do not provide a usable whois-server. Also it knows most IP blocks and the appropiate whois-server.
Surely people shouldnt have to specify a domain to use to locate info?
this is like having to go into each site and do a local search.
Yes I know you CAN do a specific branch search, but the main story is correct that there is SOME kind of problem with the org registry. If people are using default parameters and not getting the results they could obtain a week ago? THis comment isnt directed solely at the parent, and i appologise if it seems that way - this is just the 3rd or 4th person I've seen suggest the same solution.
liqbase
When they thought the problem was .org, before checkig any actual facts, they said this about them:
.org domain - Public Interest Registry."
.net addresses at the weekend. It has therefore concentrated on getting them up and running first rather than .org since it runs .net domains and not .org domains."
.org, .org does.
"Which it is all very sloppy and doesn't exactly encourage confidence in the company that now runs the
when they published their "correction" http://theregister.co.uk/content/6/30764.html they said this about verisign / NSI:
"VeriSign's crsnic Whois servers are having trouble. There was some problem with
First of all they didn't mention how "sloppy" this was of verisign, and how this incident should "shake our faith" in their ability to administer domain names.
Second off, they're still wrong. Verisign doesn't RUN the whois servers for
I do believe there are at least as many errors in the correction as in the original article, which is to say, a lot.
--- It is not the things we do which we regret the most, but the things which we don't do.
TheReg owes you and PIR a personal apology for saying you guys were "sloppy." The fact that the article went ahead full speed isn't so bothersome, it was the aspersions cast by TheReg, then not recalled that seems to be truly unprofessional here. Their correction is still incorrect, just less insultingly so.
--- It is not the things we do which we regret the most, but the things which we don't do.
I always access slashdot using telnet 0x4223FA97 80...
Hey, that's an awesome post, dude! Thanks much!
Nonetheless... fortunately, the alp-5.ul.isotic.org DNS server seems to have things under control:
> nslookup -type=ANY cougaar.org 4.22.165.5
Server: alp-5.ul.isotic.org
Address: 4.22.165.5
cougaar.org
origin = alp-5.ul.isotic.org
mail addr = alpine-sysadmin.bbn.com
serial = 2002020441
refresh = 14400 (4H)
retry = 3600 (1H)
expire = 604800 (1W)
minimum ttl = 86400 (1D)
cougaar.org nameserver = alp-5.alp.isotic.org
cougaar.org nameserver = alp-61.alp.isotic.org
cougaar.org preference = 10, mail exchanger = www.cougaar.org
cougaar.org internet address = 4.22.165.3
alp-5.alp.isotic.org internet address = 4.22.165.5
alp-61.alp.isotic.org internet address = 4.22.165.3
>
MX records and all, yay!
For a while - about a month ago - our DNS records were out of our control since our ISP had set themselves up as the master and our DNS server as the slave - doh! At least that's been fixed now.
Thanks,
Tom
The Army reading list
there is also a `meta-registry' of whois servers - whois-servers.net. For each top-level domain tld, tld.whois-servers.net is a CNAME reference to appropriate whois server.
I think that a version of whois which ships with FreeBSD uses that service by default.
In this particular case,
org.whois-servers.net is a nickname for whois.publicinterestregistry.net
The article in the Registrar was not a thoughtful and thorough. PIR has issued re-buttle. Please read the PIR comments and other blogss in: 1. We also wrote to the author of the article for The Register, and he has updated the original article http://theregister.co.uk/content/6/30760.html 2. As you've seen from ICANNWatch (http://www.icannwatch.org/article.pl?sid=03/05/19 /1422220&mode=thread), we
also posted there and have had some additional positive notes posted by
others in the community.
3. In addition, we reached out to the industry press, including Bret Fausett
(ICANN Blog at http://icann.blog.us/2003/05/19.html#a1356), and explained
the mis-information that was propagated by The Register.
S. S. Kshatriy
Member, .ORG Advisory Council.
No prob. Glad to hear you're back online.