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VeriSign Shutting Down Site Finder
00420 writes "VeriSign, the administrator of the .com and .net domains, made plans to shut down its new Site Finder service Friday, after the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ordered the company to undo controversial changes. Of course they're not taking it down because it affected the internet, they're just doing it to keep good relations with the technical community. (Seems a little late for that doesn't it?)" The shutdown is not complete yet, though: VeriSign hasn't changed their wildcard DNS entry (64.94.110.11).
I never much liked Verisign in the past, but since I already had an account there, using them to register new domains was simply the path of least resistance. But their SiteFinder is the straw that broke the camel's back.
Jason.
they're just doing it to keep good relations with the technical community.
So, it has nothing to do with the three lawsuits by godaddy, netster and their ilk?
Riight.
-Gwala
#!/bin/csh cat $0
That means that we're going to have a bigger, badder SiteFinder pretty soon, right?
How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
Where do you think the bulk of your domain registration fees go to?
Here is the start of a thread on the NANOG mailinglist:
. html
http://www.merit.edu/mail.archives/nanog/msg14917
Just goes to show how pissed people really are.....
SCREW THE ADS! http://adblock.mozdev.org/ Proud user of teh Fox of Fire - Registered Linux User #289618
Note that "making plans to shut down" does not equal "shut down."
From: owner-registrars@verisign-grs.comr egistrars@verisign-grs.com]On Behalf Of VeriSign Customer
.com and .net zones and revert to the former behavior for these
[mailto:owner-
Service
Sent: Friday, October 03, 2003 6:08 PM
To: registrars@verisign-grs.com
Subject: [RegistrarsList] VeriSign NDS Response to Suspension of Site
To All Registrars,
I am writing to update you on VeriSigns Site Finder service. On Friday,
October 3rd, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
(ICANN) directed VeriSign, Inc., to temporarily suspend service no later
than 6PM PST, Saturday, October 4. VeriSign requested an extension from
ICANN for 3 additional days for the shut down in order to provide the
technical community time to make any necessary system changes.
Unfortunately, ICANN refused this request. Accordingly, in response to
this demand, VeriSign is temporarily suspending the Site Finder service
as of Saturday, October 4 at 6PM PST.
In suspending the service, VeriSign will remove the wildcard A records
from the
zones which is returning Name Error/RCODE=3 in response to queries for
nonexistent domain names.
VeriSign remains committed to improving the Internet user experience.
We look forward to providing the Site Finder service following this
suspension. Thank you for your business. We greatly value our
relationship with you.
Best Regards,
Chris Sheridan
Manager, Customer Service
VeriSign, Inc.
www.verisign.com
I guess this goes to show that after all ICANN does indeed have some authority over Verisign. Maybe ICANN isn't the pointless and powerless body we though they were.
[Emperor Voice]I'm afraid the Site Finder will be quite operational by the time your friends arrive.[/Emperor Voice]
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
We like them today, because they are hitting Verisign, who we hate more. Tomorrow they will do something stupid and we will hate ICANN again. Such is the way of things here on Slashdot.
Kierthos
Mr. Hu is not a ninja.
That means that we're going to have a bigger, badder SiteFinder pretty soon, right?
We could find: "www.gnu.org"
There is a Web site at this address.
Are you sure? (*) No ( ) Yes [SUMBIT]
Did You Mean ?
We did find these similar Web addresses.
www.sun.com
www.microsoft.com
www.sco.com
Of course they're not taking it down because it affected the internet, they're just doing it to keep good relations with the technical community.
Nonsense. They have already demonstrated significant contempt for the technical community -- remember their original response to ICANN's advisory?
They are doing it because ICANN's last letter put their super-duper exclusive right to operate the DNS in play. Maybe ICANN could terminate, maybe not -- but who would put the entire business on the line for this opportunity -- particularly when there still is a chance to negotiate something like that in the future?
I find interesting that Verisign requested 3 days before shutting down the service to give time for the tech community to adjust.. Did they do this when the service kicked in?
Also, a quick hint to all of you stuck with Verisign to renew because the domain is past due:
Verisign renewal
Pay 15USD instead of 35USD for the very same 1 year reneal service.. Ain't that great?
have you been defaced today?
Easy: the one way to guarantee us geeks will get our panties in a BIND (heh heh) is to have a Responsible Designated Party (tm) violate an RFC or standard. The standard says a DNS server does not return an IP address when no such host or domain exists, NOT that the DNS server resolves the request to some "default no such domain" domain.
I think it also irked a lot of people because it really shows how much the Web has been pushing out all other Internet protocols to the point that the rest don't seem to matter to the Powers That Be anymore. Quite a few Internet users, I imagine, access email and news (and even chat) through the Web. But the other protocols are still there, and still in use.
Personally, it pissed me off because I administer several nameservers and when I mistype a domain in a dig or nslookup I want to SEE IMMEDIATELY that no such domain exists rather than remembering "oh right that's the Sitefinder IP address". Some of the scripts I've written depend, in fact, on nslookup saying "server can't find yaoho.com" and I've had to instead look for the sitefinder IP address.
Anyways, short answer is: geeks hate it because we tend to believe in standards since adhering to standards is the only reason the Internet got off the ground in the first place and it's just as important nowadays that we keep them up.
All's true that is mistrusted
Heres one violation that I found.
As noted in the Message from Security and Stability Advisory Committee to ICANN Board:
Now take a look at verisign's
Of course, Im no lawyer. Any comments on this would be appreciated. It looks pretty clear to me that Verisign isnt meeting their contractural agreements.
I like how Verisign is trying to act like ICANN is acting so rash and irresponsible:
This is what ICANN is for. This is excellent news! It doesnt matter how many moronic web users are clicking on things when verisign's page comes up or how useful Verisign's market research shows it is. Its important to adhere to standards. Verisign's excuses are hilarious. "Users find it useful. It has nothing to do with the loads of advertising money we get. I swear!".
Its always about money.
Verisign's connections with the government are MUCH more insideous than most people know.
I still believe the whole concept of charging for domains was technically illegal. They had a grant from the government to manage the TLDs and almost EXACTLY like what happened in the DNS redirection debacle, they decided to arbitrarily change the terms of their service in direct conflict with the agreement under which they were operating.
At the time of the domain charge scam, they got away with it in part, due to the inciteful activity of one big corporation that decided to register virtually every common name they could think of, from diarrhea.com to diapers.com. So the public turned the other way and didn't question the legality of the domain charge in the first place. Only later did someone challenge this and something like half the charges were ruled illegal. But who got their money back? Nobody to the best of my knowledge. NSI stole millions of dollars from the Internet community. What happened to this money?
Then there is the whole issue of the ridiculous terms of service Verisign/NSI employ which are arguably legal in the first place relative to managing domains. Up until recently, we had a domain that legally didn't require any renewal fee (because it was registered before NSI had the facist TOS agreement) but when we changed the nameserver, we couldn't do so without agreeing to the new terms and then were liable for renewal charges.
Verisign gets $6 each year for each and every registration in .com and .net no matter who you "buy" the name from.
.com unto Verisign effectively in perpetuity (infinite renewals unless Versign does something very, very bad). There are no provisions in the contract to drive that amount to a lower amount. I voted against that contract.
This $6 amount was fixed into the contract under which ICANN (with the help of the US Dept of Commerce) gifted
As of about 8:00 PM EST the wildcard A records pointing to 64.94.110.11 appear to be gone. I'm now getting normal NXDOMAIN responses to queries for nonexistent names.
As for the Web site, I suppose they must have taken that down, too. If you try explicitly going to http://64.94.110.11 (sitefinder-idn.verisign.com) you get a keen little page that says
We didn't find: "64.94.110.11"
There is no Web site at this address.
and I'm sure VeriSign wouldn't fib about a thing like that....
Never grep a yacc by the i-node.